Ex-President Bush speaks of pride in his sons

The Los Angeles Times ^ | March 14, 2007 | James Ricci

[MinorityRepublican]

Former President George Herbert Walker Bush spent a significant part of his speech in Los Angeles on Monday night talking of his love of family and his pride in the son who currently occupies the White House.

Yet as the 82-year-old former chief executive recounted his years as president, the tale of how he governed stood in marked contrast to what critics, a few of whom were in the audience, say are the official actions of his beleaguered son.

Enumerating the crises and triumphs of his term — among them the successful coalition-building before the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the passage of the Clean Air Act — Bush extolled the virtues of strength moderated by bipartisanship. He spoke of the need for executive restraint and sensitivity to diplomatic nuance.

Talking to an enthusiastic audience of about 2,200 gathered at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for a lecture in the Music Center Speaker Series, he said he also took pride in having had "a very capable and competent team in my administration," which was "an honorable administration in terms of scandals."

Bush, clad in a dark suit, was erect of bearing despite a hobbling gait that required the use of a cane. He joked easily and often and seemed fully recovered from a dehydration-induced fainting spell he'd suffered the previous day while golfing in Palm Springs.

He and his wife, Barbara, he said, had come to Democratic-leaning California to spend the weekend with friends. "We really do love it here," he said. "As John Kennedy said about Ohio, 'There's no place I get a warmer welcome and fewer votes than Ohio.' "

[jws3sticks]

A Master!

[amchugh]

I hope history remembers him with the credit he deserves.

[what's up]

Yes, I remember how he was respected for bringing the military back into honorable status during the Gulf War. There were very few voices raised against him then.

Then came Clinton et al. I remember clearly how they began to bad talk Bush and the Gulf War. Then slowly all of public opinion changed from a positive to a negative view of Bush Sr.

The Clintons are asps.

[RegulatorCountry]

The Clintons are asps.

You know that, and I know that, but former President George H. W. Bush doesn't quite see it that way, what with saying Bill Clinton is like a son to him, as he has.