George Bush’s Legacy: Revisiting Past Claims

Facts matter. "One protected AIDS patients from discrimination." This was part of the disability rights legislation which congress passed with virtually no dissent. A Bush veto would have easily been overridden, but the truth is Bush didn't care about this issue at all. He had no choice but to sign the bill. Moreover, as Reagan's VP for 8 years he never said a word about AIDS as many suffered and died.

It's very interesting the lavish praise for George H.W. Bush. Based on how history seems to be rewriting itself to show him in such a positive light after all these years, I can't help but wonder if the same thing will happen after some more years for his son "W" (arguably the second worst president of all time) and for the current president, Trump (arguably the worst president of all time). It seems to be human nature to remember the positive things but forget the negative things. BTW - I think he lost the election against Bill Clinton because people were tired of the 3 terms (12 years) of the Reagan (via Bush) presidency (someone else that people only seem to recall the positives and forget about the negatives).

One thing we have now that no presidents have at the time they make these decisions? Hindsight. Today is his funeral. Tomorrow the shaping of his legacy can resume.

Grocery Store Scanner - It was not a newsworthy story then … and it still isn't today. It was a cheap shot then and still is today. Willy Horton … he was not a fictitious character. He did everything he was accused of. Economy - Check the facts … the economy started to turn in the summer before the Election. But the delay in reporting the results doesn't appear until the Fall. Clinton walked in as it was getting better … Obama walked in as it was getting worse. It happens.

NYT - thanks for publishing this, setting the record straight on different key issues. I am just wondering what this article will look like when you do this for Trump one day. It may right into hundreds of pages!

He and his predecessor both became British knights after leaving office. As far as I know the first two American presidents to do so. That fact was certainly downplayed, if mentioned at all.

I pray that in our lifetime we will know where HW was on Nov. 22 1963 since he claimed to have no recollection. Then there is the memo to Hoover from a George Bush in the CIA rendering a report.The half hearted attempt to claim a night clerk at the CIA by that name was the agent is ludicrous.His connections to the Cubans in the Bay of Pigs fiasco is another issue he tried to deny despite overwhelming evidence. Iran Contra tainted HW and everyone in the Reagan administration. One more GOP presidency surrounded by criminals who were indicted. But compared the current criminal enabler, HW had some honor and competency decency.

I was hoping for some clarification around his controversial involvement in the Carlyle Group (and the Saudis’ involvement in that same outfit). Lots of suspicion, inconvenient facts and speculation to address on that front.

Ross Perot did not cost him a second term but it was the economy, "It's the economy, stupid" that cost his re-election. Clinton's campaign advantageously used the then-prevailing recession in the United States as one of the campaign's means to successfully unseat George H. W. Bush. In March 1991. Bush was perceived to be out of touch with America's problems unlike Bill Clinton, who said "I feel your pain" and Americans thought: "wow, this guy really GETS us!"

In 1980 Republican presidential primaries, George Bush senior's national and international experience at the federal government stood in sharp contrast to Ronald Reagan folksy but much more limited track record. And Bush rightly scored Reagan's naive and unsound fiscal policies ideas as "voodoo economics." Yet Bush decided to hitch his political career to Reagan's simplistic policies when he accepted the VP nomination, and to thereby serve first for eight years as Reagan's assistant, and then as his successor. This ensured that he received only minimal credit for Reagan's successes, including those based on good luck timing of the economic cycle, but did get the blame for those failures of Reagan which lasted past Reagan's presidency. In a number of ways Bush helped successfully carry out Reagan's policies better than Reagan himself did. Yet Reagan basked in the light of his successes (while the contributions of Volcker and Gorbachev remained less trumpeted). Successes under Bush's term (fall of the Berlin Wall, break-up of the Soviet Union, end of the Cold War, etc.) were seen as outcomes of Reagan's efforts, whereas failures and scandals accrued and revealed under Bush's presidency (Iran-Contra, early 90s recession) were ascribed only to him. Some of the eulogies today were exaggerated, yet they serve a useful function by helping the country better understand an unappreciated president, and bring him a little more out from under the shadow of an overrated predecessor.

It would be interesting to put a number on how many dead Bush was responsible for. I think of all the casualties resulting from the failed drug war, the meddling in Latin America, the Iraq war, etc.

That‘s an apple not a bag of candy!

181,000 people died from AIDS from 1988 to 1992. That number would have been much smaller if George H.W. Bush had formulated a National AIDS policy when he took office. He didn't, because the victims of AIDS weren't important to his administration or his Republican voters. And 30 years later, the way the Times and the media report this part of his presidency, I can't feel that gay people are really valued even now. We're all just footnotes for you.

Was Willy Horton invited to offer a eulogy today at Bush's funeral?> No way the Bush revisionists want this racist incident to be remembered. It was disgusting what he did to win in '88.

Later in my life a new word came into my lexicon.I am sure I heard it from George HWBush but I am not sure he originated it.When he was in political trouble, he talked about being in “deep doo doo”!I am just ten years than he was but the expression seemed very apt and I have enjoyed using it since he introduced it to me about twenty years ago.

Just say no. Do you really need to fact check the day he was eulogized?

This could have waited a few days. And, compared to the Creature currently occupying the Oval Office ( when not golfing or holding loyalty rallies ) Bush was a verifiable Genius and Humanitarian. Full stop.

"The independent counsel, Lawrence E. Walsh, wrote in his final report that he also hoped to interview Mr. Bush again to address what he described as a number of other inconsistencies between the available evidence and the president’s testimony, including from when he was vice president. Mr. Walsh never received his second interview." What you fail to mention is he pardoned key people involved in Iran-Contra, effectively ending the investigation into the scandal . . . and the role he played.

It's funny to me how we as a society always allow the stories of the country's "leaders" to be told from the "top down." Rarely are they written from the "bottom up." It is one of the reasons why I always treasure Howard Zinn's "The People's History of the United States." No wonder our public history books, as I now realize, are so biased and full of half-truths....

Herbert Walker really only did one brave thing as President, and that was raise taxes. That meant he was the last Republican to admit that taxes raise money and lower deficits, and cutting taxes lowers available funding for worthy programs and raises the deficit. It was thanks to his tax increase that the economy started its 8 year run under Clinton. So if legacy is limited to good things, well, that's about it. Oh, and he was kind to his own children and grandchildren. That should go without saying, but it apparently isn't true of the current President...

A consideration of his numerous vetoes within his four years of presidential service might best define his approach to public need

I keep hearing that breaking the famous read-my-lips promise cost Bush the election. As I recall at the time neither I nor my Republican friends were happy about the tax increase but we also were dismayed at the growing deficit and (remembering"ketchup is a vegetable" spending cuts) accepted it as a de-facto necessity. Speaking for myself Iran Contra was the unforgivable deed turning this then-young Republican into a cynical registered Independent. How sad to now see it as relatively trivial. If there is a lesson to take it is to beware blind loyalty, whether Bush 41 for Reagan, Hillary for Bill, Powell for Bush 43, or Sessions for Trump. If I can make one homage to the late president it is how telling that I cannot think of any of HIS subordinates who he ever asked to stand against their principles.

Also puzzling that scannergate was the lead chronicle and Iran-Contra was second. Sorry to learn that he knew all about it and then forcefully denied it. Sigh. All too human. Calgon, take me away.

The supermarket "scanner amazement" trope was a prime example of reporters and editors jumping on a perceived trend and forcing their stories to extend it. It should be avoided like another common trend, that of false equivalence. News outlets need to be super careful to simply present the facts, and not add so much "judgment" to create impressions for the reader that aren't justified. But I doubt that particular trope really affected Bush's election loss to Clinton. It might be a closer election today, because we don't really know if votes are being counted fairly and some voters are blocked unfairly. Back then, there was less suppression and more states had paper ballots and sensible counting procedures. In looking back on the "old times" under Bush, we need to renew our efforts to get back to paper ballots for every voter, automatic voter registration, mail in elections, and perform quick and efficient risk limiting audits every time.

The only one Mr Bush had to blame was himself for loosing the 1992 election. Like all the culture of corruption GOP they were in charge of both houses and had developed a hateful tone then. I remember he and the GOP were so hateful to the Florida people during a few hurricane disasters it looked like they were not going to be helped. Then Mr Bush made a statement I would like to see a leaner and meaner America. Well he got a meaner America today with Trump so he got his wish. The taxpayers should not have to waste millions on his funeral give that money to the living to pay for their healthcare.

To be fair “even basic scanner technology” is an amazing testament to the power of science, education, and the importance of shared human endeavor. Maybe we could have used some of that technological wonder to keep from permanently separating children from their families at the border or from putting a snake oil salesman as head of the executive branch. To quote Rick Perry: "Oops."

Regardless of what he did, he was civil. That is more than can be said of today's WH administration. His death is a reminder of what we have lost and will, hopefully, regain in future Presidents.

Except for the scanner story, these are all reminders that Bush was not the figure one would suppose from reading the account of his service. This is, after all, the man who dragged American campaigns into the mud with the racist Willie Horton ad and called Michael Dukakis a "card-carrying member of the ACLU." For all of his gentle demeanor and personal loyalty, he exhibited the troubling lack of principle we have come to associate with the Bush family and the GOP. Of course, he looks good by comparison to the likes of Donald Trump -- but then, almost anyone would. If Bush is not a villain in the manner of Nixon and Trump, neither is he the paragon the reports are making him out to be. It's a sad commentary on the current state of our politics that even the Bushes seem a better choice.