By Molly Mitchell
Former President George H. W. Bush is becoming quite the popular man.
Bush is the subject of a new HBO documentary in which, from his Kennebunkport home, he revisits memories of his childhood and presidency. And Bush 41 has now made the cover of Parade Magazine, along with his wife Barbara.
Parade's Editor-in-Chief Maggie Murphy dropped by the show this morning to preview Sunday’s cover story, which you can get an excerpt from currently.
The former president and Barbara Bush sat down with presidential historian Mark Updegrove. Murphy said that the most surprising aspect of the interview was how they interacted as a couple. Murphy notes, “There is a lot of kidding and joking and I think the president is as humble as everyone says.”
Readers may also be curious to learn President Bush seems to have little regard for the Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist. "The circumstances change and you can’t be wedded to some formula by Grover Norquist. It’s—who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?," Bush asks.
In the Parade interview, looking back on his presidency, Bush felt that his proudest accomplishment was that, “… we had an honorable administration. We were relatively scandal-free and blessed by good people. Something I guess I’d throw in there is the liberation of Kuwait.” Barbara Bush added, “And 40 million people now have jobs they can get to because of the Americans with Disabilities Act. You can’t not count that.”
There are few father-son relationships that have been scrutinized as much as that of George H. W. Bush and his son George W. Bush. Critics often portrayed their relationship as competitive and as a father always counseling his son. But both Bush’s deny that George Sr. constantly advised his son and Barbara added, “Nor was there any competition. People always said, 'I read that George was just doing this because he wanted to beat his father'… and they were stupid. It wasn’t true. There was no competition at all."
When asked about the president’s medical condition of vascular Parkinsonism, Bush explains, “It just affects the legs. It’s not painful. You tell your legs to move and they don’t move. It’s strange, but if you have to have some bad-sounding disease, this is a good one to get…you just face the reality and make the best of it.”
Make sure to check out Mark Updegrove’s complete interview with the Bushes.
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President George HW Bush is a member of the Greatest Generation, who dedicated his life in service to his country. Starting with his WWII military service, then as a congressman, Ambassador to China, UN Ambassador, Director of the CIA, Vice President and 41st President. While some Presidents are identified as a Republican or a Democrat, and identify themselves as a Republican or a Democrat, George HW Bush was an American President. American Presidents represent the entire country; north to south, east to west, businesses and workers, rich, poor and middle class, all races, colors, and creeds, political friends and foes, and pursues policies and compromises that benefit the greatest number. His decision to reverse the No New Taxes pledge demonstrated his courage and integrity; while it was the wrong political decision and likely cost him a second term, it was the right decision for the country and laid the groundwork for the prosperity of the 90's.
I am a New Deal Liberal Democrat, whose only political forum is the kitchen table. I hold up JFK and George HW Bush as examples of men dedicated to public service and American Presidents, with competing political philosophies. Both Presidents knew war, but pursued peace, both men faced political crises, but acted in the best interest of the country despite withering criticism.
President George HW Bush deserves the recognition, gratitude and affection of all Americans for his selfless service.
I voted for him the first time around and didn't vote for him the second time around.
Whatever good he did ( and he did some ) is outweighed by his vice president's behind the curtain gamesmanship. To put it bluntly, he was in my opinion worse than Nixon whom I mistakenly voted for. I keep trying the Republicans and keep getting depressed.
Republicans say their way is the best way and state that Obama is at fault. Take a look at the chart showing how long people work before their tax bite is paid off ever year. Under Obama it is the longest it has ever been. Now look at the trend. We pay off our tax bite in a shorter time now than we did when Obama was elected. During the years of Bush Administration, the trend was longer at the end than when he was elected. In the Clinton, the trend was shorter at the end of his term in office than it was when he was elected.
Republicans should think about such things. Joe of Morning Joe is a conservative and he listens to arguments and then argues the merits.
Congress and the Senate works for the people of America. They do not works for the Koch brothers or Limbaugh or ... or ...
Quite cutting your nose off to spite your face. No matter what, you will 99.99999% never have more than 5 million in the bank and you will certainly not be like the Koch brothers. The Koch brothers fund tea party politicians to get rid of reasonable conservatives.
Everybody should watch "The Newsroom" on TV. It is an eye opener. They use real film footage of real politicians answering real questions. What I mean by this is that:
The newscaster asks the tea party representative they fund themselves. The answer the tea party representative gives is that their party is financed by small donations from the public. The newscaster then points out that the Koch Brothers has funded the tea party and not the small public donations. The news caster states that the Koch brothers net worth is 100 times as much as Scoros's net wealth. I am not if I remember this correctly, it might have been 10 times as much.
Anyhow, the thrust of the show is that News Media are not interested in real news, but rather in ratings and revenue. I believe this has been true for quite a while.