Fathers and Sons How George W. Bush has ruined the family franchise

Web-Exclusive Commentary
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek

Dec. 8, 2006 - On the eve of a report that repudiates his son’s leadership, former president George H.W. Bush broke down crying when he recalled how his other son, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, lost an election a dozen years ago and then came back to serve two successful terms. The elder Bush has always been a softie, but this display of emotion was so over the top that it had to be about something other than Jeb’s long-ago loss.

The setting was a leadership summit Monday in Tallahassee, where the elder Bush had come to lecture and to pay homage to Jeb, who is leaving office with a 53 percent approval rating, putting him ninth among the 50 governors in popularity. The former president was reflecting on how well Jeb handled defeat in 1994 when he lost his composure. “He didn’t whine about it,” he said, putting a handkerchief to his face in an effort to stifle his sobbing.

That election turned out to be pivotal because it disrupted the plan Papa Bush had for his sons, which may be why he was crying, and why the country cries with him. The family’s grand design had the No. 2 son, Jeb, by far the brighter and more responsible, ascend to the presidency while George, the partying frat-boy type, settled for second best in Texas. The plan went awry when Jeb, contrary to conventional wisdom, lost in Florida, and George unexpectedly defeated Ann Richards in Texas. With the favored heir on the sidelines, the family calculus shifted. They’d go for the presidency with the son that won and not the one they wished had won.

The son who was wrongly launched has made such a mess of things that he has ruined the family franchise. Without getting too Oedipal, it’s fair to say that so many mistakes George W. Bush made are the result of his need to distinguish himself from his father and show that he’s smarter and tougher. His need to outdo his father and at the same time vindicate his father’s failure to get re-elected makes for a complicated stew of emotions. The irony is that the senior Bush, dismissed by Junior’s crowd as a country-club patrician, looks like a giant among presidents compared to his son. Junior told author Bob Woodward, for his book “Plan of Attack,” that he didn’t consult his father in planning the invasion of Iraq but consulted a higher authority, pointing, presumably, to the heavens.

(The rest of the article is @ link below):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16115397/site/newsweek/page/2/

guaranteed him Florida in 2000 and I don't plan to forget that.

how Jeb feels about that now. :evilgrin:

to come home for Thanksgiving. He would have been blamed for the b*sh family downfall. Now he gets to experience it from the sidelines, instead of in the vortex.

The fallout for America is incalculable.

Presidency is that the USAwill never have to deal with another Bush again!

from that day forevermore. That no member of the Bloody Fucking House Of Bush would ever lose another "election."

Too goddamn BAD, Old Reptile. Y'oughta be a good bit more careful what you wish for, coz it might come true. Please enjoy the Albatross who is your Idiot Son around your neck for the rest of your blighted life. You Kennedy-killing Motherfucker, you!

On to Paraguay!

:evilgrin:
dbt
Remember New Orleans

PS: Cry me a RIVER, Lizard King...

Seems I've got to have a change of scene
'Cause ev'ry night I have the strangest dreams;
Imprisoned by the way it could have been,
Left here on my own or so it seems.
I've got to leave before I start to scream,
But someone locked the door and took the key.
You feelin' alright
I'm not feelin' too good myself.
Well, you feelin' alright
I'm not feelin' too good myself.
Well boy, you sure took me for one big ride,
And even now I sit and wonder why,
That when I think of you I start myself to cry,
I just can't waste my time, I must keep dry.
Gotta stop believing in all your lies,
'Cause there's too much to do before I die.
You feelin' alright ......
Don't get too lost in all I say,
Yeah by the time, you know, I really felt that way.
But that was then; Now, you know, it's today,
I just can't get off so I'm here to stay.
'Til someone comes along and takes my place,
With a diff'rent name, oh, a diff'rent face
You feeling alright ......

love you dbt :hi:

then we should all congratulate him for his success in assuring the American public that we will never have to undergo another elected Bush.

but Joe did a great job of it.

41 was crying cuz the family fuckup, 43, ruined any chance Jebbie had of being prez. What's scary, though, is that I think 43 is determined to do exactly opposite of what daddy & his friend recommend.

snip...

"He has little choice but to accept the fundamental direction of the Iraq Study Group. He’s up to his neck in quicksand, and they’ve thrown him a rope."


I hope she's right about this, but I'm not so sure. I believe 43 is seething with resentment that they have bull dogged their way into his presidency & he will resist their advice. He is the decider, not them.

we have issues with our parents. We do not play these issues out on a world stage killing many thousands in the process.

Basically, if Jr does not take the ISG rope, Congress should act and get him out of the Whitehouse.

So they can all share the responsibility of the crashing of the bush family - except for the fact that the bush family never takes responsibility for anything.

his is a cowardly criminal WIMP just like all his kids

about what is going on in this country and with the war. He is putting pride and his personal feelings ahead of the good of the country. And his own son has said that everyone must make sacrifices. Well, Mr. Bush, Sr., make the sacrifice. Express your opinion and let us know what you REALLY think about what your son is doing to this country.

intervention long ago. were they really that blind? or did babs tell them to lay off. :evilgrin:

ellen fl

Like his son, he's a murderous killer of Iraqis, and H.W.'s dad suppoerted Hitler.

F*ck the entire Bush clan and let them burn in hell for all I care! I don't care how many times daddy Bush cries out in emotion like that!

One thing I always admired him for was immediately joining the Navy after Pearl Harbor and putting his life on the line for his country.

I understand that his flying career wasn't all that heroic, but at least he was THERE.

conservative mother can't stand Jebbles.

Eleven American servicemen died in Iraq on the day Bush was presented the report...And we’re left to analyze Bush’s tender ego and whether he can reverse course on the folly that is killing and maiming countless Iraqis along with U.S. troops.