Very late Friday night, news broke that former President George Herbert Walker Bush passed away at the age of 94, only months after Barbara Bush also succumbed to death..
The former president’s legacy was immediately heralded on radio and television broadcasts.. news stations went wall to wall, bringing back people from the OLD 20th century to relinquish private and personal tales of Poppy Bush and compare and contrast his political style with the newer age of Trump.. Trump, by the way, made December 5 a national day of mourning. December 5 is also Krampus day…
From the report:
The last words spoken by former president George H.W. Bush came barely an hour before he died, in a telephone conversation with his son, former president George W. Bush. The 43rd president had expressed his love for his father. “I love you, too,” the 41st president replied.
The president’s eldest son was on speaker phone, one of a series of final, farewell conversations between the family patriarch and his children, arranged Friday evening as it became clear that the hours were drawing short.
Bush had struggled for days at his home in Houston, not getting out of bed, eating almost nothing, seemingly in decline from the vascular parkinsonism that had restricted his speech and mobility in his final years. But he seemed to find ease in his final moments, said James A. Baker III, Bush’s friend and confidant of 40 years. “It was a very gentle and peaceful and easy passing.”
And this passage from Balz’s report showcases the brutal emotion and yet peacefulness that a final moment on the planet earth can bring.. Secretary Baker was there at the end..
He arrived about 7:15 a.m. to find Bush sitting up in bed. One of Bush’s caregivers told the former president that “Secretary Baker is here.”
“He looked up at me and said, ‘Bake, where are we going?’ ” Baker said in a telephone interview Saturday afternoon. “I said, ‘Jefe, we’re going to heaven.’ And he said, ‘That’s where I want to go.’ ”
The pure and unadulterated emotions that passage contains cannot be underscored.. Whether Democrats or Republicans are on a death bed, the final moments are all the same..
Sooner or later God will cut you down..
The final moments for Bush seemingly were filled with peace, beauty, and in the evening someone singing the song SILENT NIGHT, according to Balz’s article..
George Bush Sr. was one of the most prominent figures in my life — he was president during many of my coming of age moments in my life. Whether it was being scared of Saddam Hussein as a grade schooler, or laughing when Dana Carvey lampooned him on SNL.. Bush was there. As a kid, I recall vibrantly using my impression of Bush Sr. to score friends on the playground. I was a natural. Quite honestly, I simply copied off of the Carvey impersonation more than Bush himself..
I recall some poignant moments at the age of 10 and 11 when we, as kids in a classroom in Eastern Pennsylvania, did not have a clue if Saddam Hussein would destroy America. We were scared. We were also somehow comforted by the voice of Bush addressing the nation the night the war began..
As history proceeded, perspectives changed..
x x x
Bush Sr. was mocked on NEWSWEEK for being a Wimp in the 80s..
But was the “wimp factor” just 20th century diplomacy during and after a Cold War?
Bush made the decision NOT to go after Hussein in Baghdad, something his own son did in the early 2000s.. Bush Sr., a diplomat, did not go on television the night that the Berlin Wall collapsed.. He did not want to appear to the then Soviet Union as being ‘in your face.’
He was the MOST POPULAR president (for a period of time) we had–92% favorable rating after the Gulf War.. Popular, until Governor Bill Clinton took him down by highlighting his seemingly out of touch behavior, such as not knowing how to pay for groceries with a cash register, coupled with Republicans anger over him breaking the “read my lips no new taxes” pledge..]
And who can forget bad sushi creating the VOMIT in CHIEF.. Mocked and lampooned by MAD MAG soon after…?
But yet with all of the diplomacy, he is also a figure of controversy. He was in charge of the CIA, and was also immensely involved with the Iran Contra affair.. Some are beginning to wonder if history, now that he has deceased, is being too kind to the legacy of Bush Sr.
A few months ago, Bush Sr. was involved in a mini-scandal about grabbing women’s behinds ..
Tonight, that is all a distant memory as the world acknowledged history that was made by his presidency.
For people my age, he was not only the first president they truly got to know, but he was also the first president they had on a trading card..
George Bush.. the commander in chief in the last war that America won..
