Bush was patriarch to U.S. political dynasty ▶

Jeb’s son, George P. Bush, next in line

AUSTIN, Texas — The Kennedys had their New England coastal hideaway in Hyannis Port, a Camelotlike mystique and a political godfather in Joseph P. Kennedy.

For the country’s other political dynasty — the Bushes — it was a summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, and the West Texas oil patch that created a mix of Yale blue-blood and backcountry cowboy, and their own patriarch in George H.W. Bush.

Bush, who died late Friday at age 94 , was a World War II hero, a Texas congressman, the director of the CIA, vice president and eventually president. His son, George W., served as Texas governor and two terms in the White House.

Though another son, ex-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, turned monster fundraising into an embarrassingly short-lived 2016 presidential run — his campaign eviscerated by Donald Trump — the family’s future political prowess remains intact, including with Jeb’s 42-year-old son, George P. Bush, who is seen as a rising GOP star.

“I think when people hear the name George H.W. Bush they think of the word ‘statesman,’ ” George P. Bush said in 2013. “And I think his career really represents a generation that many Americans now and in the future will consider our country’s greatest generation.”

Some historians regard George H.W. Bush as more bipartisan than his presidential successors — and his softer-spoken, humbler style is a far cry from Trump. Bush is also remembered as ending the Cold War, though he also invaded Panama and brought America to war for the first time against Saddam Hussein.

But defining an overall Bush family political legacy gets tougher, though, when considering that George W. Bush led the Iraq War in 2003, accusing Hussein of having non-existent weapons of mass destruction. And while the elder Bush’s 1992 re-election bid was marred by his reneging on his “Read my lips: No new taxes” pledge, the younger Bush presided over a financial crisis that triggered the Great Recession.

Russ Baker, author of “Family of Secrets,” a biography of the Bushes, said the family is better known for building an enduring political dynasty than for its policy or ideology, especially by following the lead of George H.W. Bush and his wife of 73 years, Barbara, who died in April.

“They meet people and they all know to collect the name of every person you ever meet. Grandfather and grandmother had a Christmas card list of 40,000,” Baker said in 2017.

George P. Bush, the only family member to campaign for Trump after his father dropped out of the race, largely shrugs off questions about his family dynasty and his responsibility for keeping it alive. His father’s 2016 loss could also alleviate some of the political dynastical pressures that might otherwise have hampered his future career.

He said that Barbara Bush made clear that the family wouldn’t be able to coast on their last name alone. “It’s always been the thing of my grandmother to, ‘Go out and make a name for yourself,’” Bush said in 2013.

Tony Gutierrez The Associated Press Former President George H.W. Bush embraces Barbara Bush after she introduces him at the Genesis Women’s Shelter Mother’s Day Luncheon in Dallas in May 2006.