Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

George H.W. Bush at 100: The last WASP president
The Hill ^ | 06/12/2024 | ELIOT WILSON

Posted on 06/12/2024 7:25:57 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

Today marks the centenary of the birth of George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st president of the United States. With one exception — his eldest son in 2004 — he is the last Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote.

He was a remarkable man in many ways, having been decorated as a U.S. Navy pilot during World War II, and his resume before the presidency was broad. After becoming a successful oil executive, he was a two-term congressman, unsuccessful candidate for the Senate, ambassador to the United Nations and to China, chairman of the Republican National Committee and director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Bush seems now a figure of a truly bygone age. He was a relatively low-key vice president to Ronald Reagan by choice rather than imposition, learning from his Democratic predecessor Walter Mondale that being effective as VP in Washington owed a lot to avoiding conflict with White House staff and cabinet secretaries. He was also aware that the previous Republican vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, had become mired in disputes with other members of the administration by trying to insert himself into the decision-making process.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: bush; georgehwbush; last; president; wasp
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-118 next last
To: Zhang Fei

Television forever changed politics, and not for the better.


61 posted on 06/12/2024 12:39:49 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Wallace T.

Your post at 56 clarifies mine about the defiinition of WASP — that the other three presidents were watered down, but had some colonial blood. Doesn’t that leave Trump out? Wouldn’t surprise me if he broke the mold.


62 posted on 06/12/2024 12:43:15 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (Either ‘the Deep State destroys America, or we destroy the Deep State.’ --Donald Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: napscoordinator

Really- your perspective is what? Florida? Post Offices in other states. There was no steal there in FL. Because the precincts have electoral oversight from State Government and strict laws regarding absentee ballot security/provenance.Assuming your reply is to the issue of the steal, as have kept up with prior posts on this topic.

So prove it in any of the 6 Electoral swing States which WERE identified and challenged please. Include Maricopa County (corrupt republicans in droves). Those challenges resisted by demonrat “judges/hacks”, and Party jackasses for joebama, working with former Perkins Coie a@2hole Marc Elias- vote theft expert. That statement being a fact. The ballots (and votes) were fabricated (digitally and physically) in excess of possible voter census within precincts. This happened in GA, for certain, and fortunately GA is moving to prevent this-with real conservatives, republicans not from the Bush league.


63 posted on 06/12/2024 1:12:26 PM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: ChicagoConservative27

Yeah.... “Read my lips”....and then turned around and let SS increase their bite out of our paychecks, IIRC....


64 posted on 06/12/2024 1:14:14 PM PDT by Gaffer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Verginius Rufus

Could be. Pro debaters wear their watch (if they have one) on the inside of the wrist where it can be seen in normal “note looking down” view.

Do wonder why joebama the “genius” present-dent looked at his watch when “honoring” our dead military at the Dover AFB national reception center. Did he have a barber appointment or something pressing. He’ll never remember it now.


65 posted on 06/12/2024 1:15:22 PM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: Wallace T.

Yeah that Kenyan “daddy” of obamaumao was as “Colonial” British as he could get— since he was a major supporter of Jomo Kenyatta and the violent anti-Colonial Mau Mau that slaughtered British colonial farmers. That being “if” that was his daddy and not the product of Stanley Dunham Obama’s whoring around with Frank Marshall Davis of the Communist Party (noted pornographer who “took the young boy under his....wing). Descent from the father in obama’s case was not brit colonial or Protestant (accepting that Sr. obama of kenya was the father. One who was never there).


66 posted on 06/12/2024 1:20:27 PM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: ChicagoConservative27
With one exception — his eldest son in 2004 — he is the last Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote.

His son won the popular vote in 2004 so what was the author's point?

67 posted on 06/12/2024 1:21:51 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zhang Fei
Quayle might have caught fire. The way he came off, Quayle was a drag on Bush’s ticket.

VP candidates are overrated. Kamala Harris sucks. But Joe Biden won anyway (I know he cheated but he did receive a lot of popular support from the voters in 2020).

68 posted on 06/12/2024 1:23:46 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Know all of that. White Scottish/German Protestant, not pure WASP for what that is worth, which in many people’s minds is worth quite a bit more- that and not being a ladder climbing political family, but one from business- worldwide.

Take a look at the current annoying spectrum of “protestantism” (and leave our the Moron Tablenapkin Choirboy from Utah)— really appalling separation from Scripture.


69 posted on 06/12/2024 1:26:12 PM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: John S Mosby

I’m in Florida. I’m just going with official numbers. Sure there was cheating but 8 million votes worth? Republicans don’t typically win popular vote anymore. Last time was 2004. Twenty years ago because cities have majority of the population in most states.


70 posted on 06/12/2024 1:28:52 PM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: John S Mosby
I just find it amusing that people get called WASPs when they are not. Have a nephew who got called a WASP by a deranged protester a few years ago. He pointed out that since he was Polish by blood and Eastern Orthodox by religion that she really missed on all counts but she should have a nice day any way.
71 posted on 06/12/2024 1:31:38 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Roses are red, Violets are blue, I love being on the government watch list, along with all of you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: napscoordinator
Republicans don’t typically win popular vote anymore.

Not possible because with the votes from California and New York alone, they've already won the popular vote.

72 posted on 06/12/2024 1:31:41 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

The Rats can get half the EVs they need without lifting a finger.


73 posted on 06/12/2024 1:32:59 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear

The KKK hated Catholics as much as they hated blacks.


74 posted on 06/12/2024 1:33:42 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

Absolutely true. It’s possible though in 10 years, we might be able to win the popular vote if we keep getting bigger percentages of black and Hispanic votes.


75 posted on 06/12/2024 1:34:52 PM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Ken522

His kid won the popular vote in 2004. But I realize it’s The Hill.


76 posted on 06/12/2024 1:37:12 PM PDT by Luke21
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
Mostly because the majority of the Catholics in the country were Irish.
77 posted on 06/12/2024 1:37:26 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Roses are red, Violets are blue, I love being on the government watch list, along with all of you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: napscoordinator
Absolutely true. It’s possible though in 10 years, we might be able to win the popular vote if we keep getting bigger percentages of black and Hispanic votes.

It's possible. As long as the Republican candidate is alpha like Trump or DeSantis.

No more beta males like Romney or McCain.

78 posted on 06/12/2024 1:37:29 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

That’s 100 percent truth.


79 posted on 06/12/2024 1:39:24 PM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: nwrep

No, Trump’s a New Yorker. The Bushes were something of a mixed bag. New England roots if you go back far enough, but GHWB’s grandparents were from the Midwest. His father settled in Connecticut and became a senator from that state, but he worked in NYC. GHWB moved to Texas, and his children grew up there. GHWB was born in Massachusetts, GWB in Connecticut, and Jeb in Texas.

WASPism is a state of mind. Pretty much all of our presidents were White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Kennedy was the exception, and maybe Van Buren was too. Eisenhower was of German ancestry but assimilated. Obama is hard to categorize, but probably not a WASP.

With time though, WASP came to imply a degree of privilege. GHWB came from that world of privilege (Social Register, Episcopalian, Mayflower and Revolutionary War ancestors, old money, investment banker father, prep school, Yale, Skull and Bones, CIA) so he counts as a WASP in the privileged sense.

GWHB would have been an acceptable member of his father’s banking firm or gentleman’s club. His son, or Trump, or Clinton, not so much, though heaven knows the investment banking world has changed a lot since Prescott Bush’s day.


80 posted on 06/12/2024 1:40:43 PM PDT by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-118 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson