George Bush was Ronald Reagan’s Vice-President and the scion of a wealthy political family. His father, Prescott, was a U.S. Senator and a Wall Street banker. His grandfather on his paternal side was Samuel Bush who became associated with the Rockefellers and the Harrimans in the railroad business. Samuel became involved with government when given national responsibility for government assistance to and relations with munitions companies during World War I and also spent some time serving on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. George’s grandfather on his maternal side was George Herbert Walker, a prominent banker and businessman, also with close ties to the Harriman family.
Bush was educated at prestigious New England private schools and was on his way to Yale when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Back in those days, there was a sense of noblesse oblige among prominent families, and I expect that George had been inculcated with that sense of duty. Instead of heading to Yale, he joined the Navy as an aviator, the youngest Navy aviator at the time. IN 1944, he was part of a task force that was victorious against the Japanese at the Battle of the Phillipine Sea. During an attack on Chicijima, Bush piloted an aircraft that took enemy fire, forcing him to bail out and wait in the ocean for four hours until he could be rescued. Through 1944, he flew 58 combat missions and received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation. He was honorably discharged in 1955, and married Barbara Bush. He went to Yale and completed his degree in 2.5 years while, among other things, serving as captain of its baseball team and being inducted into the Skull & Bones secret society.
After graduation, he parlayed his father’s connections into a profitable stint in the oil business; first starting as a clerk with a company where his dad had served on the board of directors, then starting his own oil company which he ran for about 15 years before entering politics. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1964, losing to the incumbent Democrat – but, in doing so, Bush was part of an effort that co-opted the John Birchers and moved the Texas Republicans to the right, supporting “state’s rights” in opposition to civil rights. Country club Republicans were merging with state’s rights Democrat segregationists under the Republican banner. In 1966, Bush was elected to Congress as the first Republican to represent Houston. He served two terms and decided to try for the Senate seat again. This time, he lost to Lloyd Bentsen who would later be on the ticket that unsuccessfully opposed his run for President in 1988. While Bush lost the Senate race in 1970, he gained Nixon’s gratitude for giving up his Congressional seat to make the run and was appointed Ambassador to the United Nations for two years before becoming chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was loyal to Nixon as long as he could be but, when the scandal grew too big to contain, he joined in the call for Nixon’s resignation.
Ford appointed Bush to be, in effect, ambassador to China (though he didn’t have that title officially because the U.S. did not have a formal embassy with the People’s Republic of China.) In 1976-1977, Bush was appointed to be the Director of Central Intelligence and helped steer the CIA after it was rocked with scandals uncovered by the Church Committee.
In 1980, Bush ran for President, representing centrist Republicans and facing an uphill battle against front runner Reagan who represented the conservative wing of the party. He tagged Reagan’s economic plans as “voodoo economics,” and managed to beat Reagan in Iowa. However, Reagan regrouped and beat Bush in New Hampshire and the rest of the primaries until Bush conceded. Reagan selected Bush as his vice-presidential running mate.
During the vice-presidency, Bush kept a low profile, getting some flack from comedians about how all he ever did was attend funerals. He was involved in deregulation and international efforts to address illegal drugs. There is evidence to suggest that he was aware of the details of the Iran-Contra deal.
In 1988, he was the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to be President. He employed, among others, Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes as campaign staff. Those two have worked significant damage in American politics. But, they got Bush elected. During the primary, Bush initially lost to Bob Dole and Pat Robertson in the Iowa primary, but Robertson was tripped up on embellishments he seems to have made about his military service while the Bush campaign painted Dole as a tax raiser. Bush won New Hampshire and then his organization and money carried him through the nationwide race, making him the Republican nominee. On the Democratic side, Gary Hart was initially the front runner. Hard as this may seem to believe in the days of a viable Trump candidacy, Hart’s marital infidelity and debts sank him. Plagiarism was enough to sink Joe Biden’s candidacy. That still left a crowded field with Mike Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, and Paul Simon. Jackson and Gore split the southern states, Simon took Illinois, Gephardt took a few states in the Midwest, and Dukakis won most of the rest.
Bush attacked Dukakis as a liberal. Dukakis had a photo-op in a tank, trying to improve his military bona fides. Unfortunately, he looked ridiculous and the Bush campaign capitalized. Atwater and Ailes pummeled him with the racist Willie Horton ad, and Dukakis was unable to respond effectively.
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