POTUS 41: Pres. George Herbert Walker ("Read My Lips") Bush

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George Herbert Walker Bush was a Senator's son, a New England blueblood, who transplanted himself to Texas after college at Yale (his father Prescott and son George also attended Yale).

He was the fifth cousin four times removed of Franklin Pierce, the seventh cousin three times removed of Theodore Roosevelt, the seventh cousin four times removed of Abraham Lincoln, and the eleventh cousin once removed of Gerald Ford.

He started out as a good guy. Despite being born rich, on his 18th birthday, six months after Pearl Harbor, George enlisted in the Navy and became a bomber pilot. He flew 58 combat missions in the Pacific, earning four medals including the Distinguished Flying Cross.

George worked his way up the Republican ranks via some adept brown-nosing and served in President Ford's cabinet as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He served as Vice-President to the 40th President, Ronald "Dutch" Reagan. He got the nod from his party to run for POTUS, and won on the unspoken premise it would be Reagan's third term. Democrats Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro didn't really put up much of a fight.

Early in the 1988 campaign, George Bush jumped the rail to focus on one thing: winning. He said a lot of things he didn't really believe in, and made promises he would regret.

The Congress will push me to raise taxes and I'll say no. And they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll push again. And I'll say to them: 'Read my lips: No. New. Taxes.'

He started a war in Iraq, targeting Saddam Hussein, and he invaded Panama (as the United States had so many times before) where he captured Manuel Noriega our old ally, who had now become a murderous drug kingpin and was openly taunting The White House.

I would be remiss if I neglected to mentioned that President Bush also made the unforgivable mistake of selecting Senator Dan Quayle as his Vice-President. Not only was Quayle an empty suit, he was a knucklehead too. He wasn't just bland or a faceless political operative. . .he was dumb as a post. A statement he made debating Senator Lloyd Bentsen (VPOTUS candidate on Michael Dukakis's ticket) is a classic deer-in-the-headlights moment:

Indiana senator Dan Quayle (George Bush's running mate) made a remarkable claim. "I have as much experience in the Congress," he said, "as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency." Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen was not amused. "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy," he declared. "I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy!"

In his re-election bid, they never let President Bush forget "No New Taxes." Running in a strange three-way against a charismatic and politically savvy William Jefferson Clinton, and a complete dingbat, Ross Perot, he lost the election. Perot siphoned off something like 19 million votes, presumably largely from The President. Who knows how the election would have gone without Perot in the spoiler role? Bill Clinton easily won and remained in the White House for eight years (despite some close calls, including impeachment). The President's war against Saddam Hussein didn't seem to affect the election much. His son would would try to finish that war eight years later.
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