George H.W. Bush

In my opinion, George Bush, Sr. assembled the most competent cabinet and administration in modern history, though this was mostly due to the eight preceding Reagan years from which the chaff was largely removed. While Bush, Sr. only had four years to finish much of the unfinished business from the previous Reagan Administration, he was largely successful in doing so (e.g. implementing the peace dividend by starting the long-term process of standing down the Cold War military position). Unfortunately, Bush, Sr. also thought he was above politics, which resulted in his ignoring the campaign trail and that ultimately cost him a second term. If Bush, Sr. had stayed in office from 1992-96, then there would have been some legitimate chance that real debt and tax reduction would have been completed when it was the least economically painful to do so. Something his successor (i.e. Clinton) failed to do. (One must comprehend government accounting to fully understand this.) Moreover, we might ha... Read more

Years later, he will be remembered as un underrated president.

A gentleman and the pick of this litter!

I actually think that George H.W. Bush did a good job as President. At the time, he was criticized for not having vision and for being too pragmatic and far too cautious. Like the son, he had his own fair share of verbal malapropisms. But I give him a lot of credit for managing the fall of the Soviet Union fairly well, for maintaining a balance in the Middle East, and for re-stabilizing the US economy back home. Lets start with the first point. Many criticized Bush for not supporting Yeltsin during the fall of the Soviet Union. However, I think that Bush was right to be cautious. His main concern was that excessive support early on would have meant a reactionary backlash that could have lead to a successful coup on the part of Soviet hardliners in the Kremlin. Had he supported the reformers early on '89 or '90, Gorbachev wouldn't have been able to keep the communist reactionaries at bay. He bought just enough time to let Yeltsin's movement grow, so that by late 1991, the communists cou... Read more

The guy was a joke, just like his son. Consider, the entire time he was Reagans vice the Bush family was never invited to their home. Also, we hear the chatter about Clintons affair but nobody ever mentions that George Sr. lived with another woman while he was married to Barbra. He left her when he decided to go into politics. Yeah, good ol family values. This whole family is equal to the mob.

I really like GHW Bush, the ex-president and funny old man, but I'm unsure about his presidency. He really fumbled the collapse of the Soviet Union. He should have done more to encourage Yeltsen to clean up Russian politics. Putin, for example, should have landed in jail after the collapse of the Commies, rather than into the presidency. And he let Saddam's regime fester. But hindsight is 20/20, so I shouldn't falt him too much.