Bush’s life, legacy in focus
GEORGE H.W. BUSH Body of former president going to Capitol 1924 — 2018
HOUSTON — George H.W. Bush played many prominent public roles in nearly a century of life, from when he was a 20-yearold World War II hero to the 41st president of the United States. In between came turns as a congressman, the director of the CIA, an ambassador to the United Nations and China, and a two-term vice president.
Yet colleagues and friends say the great-grandfather was humble, modest and unfailingly polite.
Bush, who died late Friday at his Houston home at age 94, would see his popularity as president soar after he assembled a U.S.-led military coalition that liberated the oil-rich nation of Kuwait from its invading neighbor Iraq in 1991 during the Gulf War. But just a year later, a deepening economic crisis at home would drive him from office when he lost his bid for re-election.
Still, the Republican would reinvent himself yet again by becoming an elder statesman admired by members of both major political parties. Bush, who died just eight months after the death of his wife of seven decades, Barbara, also saw his son George W. Bush twice elected as the nation’s 43rd president.
“George H. W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for,” the younger Bush said in a statement Friday. “The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens.”
Air Force One was being sent to Texas to transport Bush’s casket to Washington, where his body will lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda after an arrival ceremony Monday. The public is invited and can pay their respects from Monday evening through Wednesday morning. The family is still arranging funeral services, but the White House said President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump plan to attend.
On Monday, the New York Stock Exchange will observe a one-minute moment of silence at 9:20 a.m. Eastern Time in honor of Bush.
“We remember President
Bush admiringly as a veteran who fought totalitarianism, a statesman who advocated for freedom, a leader who served his country, and an unabashedly dedicated family man,” said Stacey Cunningham, NYSE Group President.
When Bush ran for president in 1980, he was in a field of seven Republicans led by Ronald Reagan. That’s when he dismissed Reagan’s budget notions as “voodoo economics,” a line he would regret when as vice president he wound up defending the same program.
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 their policy or ideology, especially by following the lead of George H.W. Bush and his wife of 73 years, Barbara, who died in April 2018.
“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.
“The Bush family are the greatest ever at leveraging their communal family assets. Better, I believe, than even the Kennedys,” he added. “They are masters, they all get it. They understand this is what they are supposed to do.”
Developing powerful friends across business and politics has helped the family build and maintain a large network of national Republican donors that has continued to support the Bushes through its revolving cast of candidates.
Beyond fundraising, though, George H.W. Bush earned entree into the Mexican oil business in the 1960s after first meeting an executive from that country at a Texas A&M football game. Family ties to financiers helped Jeb Bush get his start in Florida real estate in the 1980s, and connections aided in George W. Bush’s becoming part owner of the Texas Rangers from 1989 until being elected Texas governor in 1994.