GHW Bush ran as a Demagogue. Twice.

[Va Lefty]

"Nobody with any longterm memory at all doesn't realize that, in 1988 and 1992, the late Mr. Bush ran for office in campaigns thick with calumny and deceit. In 1988, for political gain, he engaged in the personal destruction of Michael Dukakis, using the most poisonous tactics available to any American politician—racism and accusations of disloyalty. (Remember all the stuff about the Pledge of Allegiance?). In 1992, late in the campaign, his people—on the taxpayer's dime, I might add—scoured various passport files to prove that Bill Clinton had become a secret Communist on a visit to Russia, and also went through Clinton's mother's file as well. My own personal gripe is that Bush hired the dirty work out to some godawfully terrible people, without whom American politics would have been infinitely better off. This, I might add, was typical of the way the WASP elite had done business for centuries."

"Anyway, apparently, our civic religion requires that we confess our belief that there is some sort of bright line between "campaigning" and "governing." (The gang at MSNBC seems particularly devoted to this part of the creed.) That is all my bollocks, and it's goddamn dangerous thing to accept as axiomatic, as has been demonstrated to the country on a regular basis since January of 2019. (It is the profession of faith that underlies all that hopeful whimpering about how the president* may one day pivot to being president.) The poison injected into the bloodstream during a campaign doesn't magically get cleansed as soon as somebody puts his or her hand on the Bible. "

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a25414794/george-hw-bush-racial-demagogue-campaign-governing/

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. K & R

[lilactime]

2. Yes he did and that is the HW Bush *I* remember!

[not fooled]

3. Yep

Another great Charlie Pierce take on the GOPeePee and its henchmen. I just can't with this family. Ever.


His postings accurately trace the entire sorry modern history of how we came to be where we are now.

[still_one]

4. Memories are short, but even if we accept that there are differences between campaigning and

governing, looking at the governing of George H. Bush was a very mixed picture.

His invasion of Iraq was a sham, when the Ambassador to Iraq at the time, April Gillespie, told Hussein that the U.S. would not involve itself between Iraq and Kuwait over the oil dispute, if Iraq invaded Kuwait.

We were deceived into that war as we were when his son invaded Iraq. The only positive thing that George H. bush did regarding that invasion was not occupying Iraq, and not changing the balance of power in the M.E., something that his disregarded, and helped usher in much of the choas we are going through now


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony