RIP President George H.W. Bush

More on Bush's college baseball career:

Pitt and the president

Abbott: I don't think Bill Clinton grew up in a family with anywhere near the financial resources of the Kennedys, Bushes or Fucko.

PS: For Springsteen fans, read the linked story in the "more back then" section at the bottom of the article.

 

Sure there is:

GWB releases a public statement: "In accordance with opinions my father frequently expressed to me, on behalf of our entire family, to ensure the dignity of the office, no member (or family members) of the incumbent administration is to be admitted to any formal funeral or memorial events. I have directed my Secret Service detachment to act accordingly and the respective personnel assigned to other Presidents have indicated they will cooperate."

 

Since this thread is about to be locked, I'd like to point out that Jimmy Carter at 94 becomes the oldest living President, followed by the current one.

 

Clinton and Obama represent a different, newer section of the American elite than the Bushes or Kennedys. Call it the elite of really good SAT scores and educational accomplishment, misnamed meritocracy.

 

And probably will have the longest post-presidency too. Only president to be alive 40 years after his inauguration.

 

That also makes Carter the last President with active duty combat service. Not the longest stretch however without a President in uniform. It appears Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and FDR all found other pursuits, although Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary to the Navy.

 

All the Presidents you cite were of military age between the Civil War and WW1, when military service was even more the exception in society than it is now.

 

Describing LBJ as a "combat veteran" is quite a stretch. He spent the WW2 years getting promotional photos taken of him in his uniform and partying stateside while serving as a shipyard inspector. He had one visit to the Pacific theatre (he arranged it basically as a political stunt), did a ride-along on a single Superfortress bombing mission as an observer, and the plane had to turn around and go back before reaching its target because of a failed generator. There are conflicting accounts as to whether the plane came under fire (LBJ, you can be sure, claimed it did). He arranged to be awarded a Silver Star for his troubles. He was "in action" for 13 minutes.

 

Reagan did limited service, but he was active duty during WWII.

 

While watching the news last night, I was struck by how every reporter NBC trotted out its stable went out of their way to say what a great man he was. No mention of his time running the CIA, and more importantly, no mention of his central role in the Iran-Contra episode. Bush was Reagan's hatchet man and went to war to protect oil. I appreciate his service in WWII, but he's not a great man in my book.

 

Point received. But I do not ever in my life need to be lectured to by any of Robert Kennedy's children or gra

trump and Clinton are the only ones since the Civil War conscription to dodge Military Service. There was no draft when Obama was 18 or older.

 

One thing that baffles me is the way Americans view Putin vis a vis all the other Soviet/Russian leaders in their lifetime.

Yes, America always hated the ideology, but its ire was directed at Communism and ONLY at Communism.

Khruschev wasn't demonized; communism was. Brezhnev wasn't demonized; communism was. Andropov wasn't demonized; communism was. Gorby and Yeltsin are in their own category, liked by America because they destroyed the country.

But Russia under Putin is no more communist than most other socialist European countries. It's less aggressive around the globe than it was under any of those leaders. Its people enjoy far more freedoms than they did during the Cold War. It has trade deals and agreements all over the globe. There is no Iron Curtain or anything approaching that nature. Yet since the end of WWII, Putin and Putin alone causes irrational people to utter the "Hitler" and "Stalin" comparisons. It makes zero sense.