Comments on: George H. W. Bush is laid to rest… https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/ A blog about political change, among other things Thu, 13 Dec 2018 04:02:36 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Julie near Chicago https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2415379 Thu, 13 Dec 2018 04:02:36 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2415379 The old Trifecta — now, “Right Angle” — guys, namely Bill Whittle, Scott Ott, and Stephen Green — have an episode up called “The Dauntless Courage of a Boy Who Would Be President.” Description:

The late President George H.W. Bush was the youngest Navy pilot in World War II, and Bill Whittle shares the harrowing tale of his aerial attack on a Japanese island. Shot down, he rowed a rubber raft into the vast Pacific.

17:41, at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APqLHl0P4Uw

]]> By: Kate https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2414881 Sat, 08 Dec 2018 21:48:24 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2414881 Oh, I forgot about the smoking, AesopFan! I’ve got 20-25 years, optimistically.

]]> By: AesopFan https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2414865 Sat, 08 Dec 2018 19:58:01 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2414865 Kate on December 8, 2018 at 8:12 am at 8:12 am said:

Fortunately I will probably be gone by the time Obama’s state funeral apotheosis comes.
* * *
FIFY
And you & I may outlive him, because of his heavy smoking.
Being slender is no guarantee of lack of heart problems, although being heavy does exacerbate them.

]]> By: Kate https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2414828 Sat, 08 Dec 2018 13:12:17 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2414828 I’m not convinced that a vegan diet, modified, is necessarily the best thing for Clinton’s heart. He looks fragile to me. Bush (43) looks his age, but looks more vigorous. And in this age group there’s Trump, who is in excellent health despite being too heavy.

Fortunately I will probably be gone by the time Obama’s state funeral comes.

]]> By: AesopFan https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2414809 Sat, 08 Dec 2018 05:39:13 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2414809 Okay, I had to admit that I never really knew why Bill Clinton got the nickname Slick Willie, although I always felt it described him very well (as did most of the nation, on both sides of the aisle). So I did what any red-blooded American would do and looked it up.
The Frontline article seems to have been written just prior to the election of 1996 between Clinton and Dole; it’s titled “The Choice ’96” although I couldn’t find an actual date on it.
It is long, but worth reading; the parallels to today’s political situation are almost uncannily precise.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/choice/bill/greenberg.html

The WaPo (Dec 1998) is a puffpiece, forced into reciting the history of the nickname while trying to get around saying out loud how well it fit.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/slick122098.htm

]]> By: AesopFan https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2414805 Sat, 08 Dec 2018 05:16:34 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2414805 Although I appreciate the importance of a vegan diet (AesopSpouse is quite rigorous about it), and appreciate that Mr. Clinton has the determination to make the changes he did, when I read the article in full, I had to laugh.

“I glanced at his plate and saw none of the steak, shrimp, fish or chicken on the buffet — just a tangle of green lo mein noodles and a pile of broccoli.

“Is that all you’re eating?” I blurted.

“That’s right,” he replied. “I’ve stopped eating meat, cheese, milk, even fish. No dairy at all.”
…
Once a week or so, he will have a helping of organic salmon or an omelet made with omega-3-fortified eggs, to maintain iron, zinc and muscle mass.”

He has to cheat, even on a diet.
Slick Willie’s gonna be Slick Willie until the day he dies, and probably afterward.

]]> By: neo https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2414740 Fri, 07 Dec 2018 21:46:15 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2414740 Art Deco:

I happen to think that Bill Clinton will last a long time.

He did have bypass surgery, but since then he has completely changed his eating habits.

What’s more, as far as his “manifest physical aging” goes—although many people comment on it, I just don’t see what they’re talking about other than a completely normal getting somewhat older. Clinton is now 72. He’s not going to look the way he did at the time he became president, when he was 46 years old. He looks pretty darn good for a guy of 72. Take it from me—I know a lot of guys of 72.

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2414730 Fri, 07 Dec 2018 20:58:08 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2414730 As I listened to the accolades and anecdotes about George H. W. Bush, I couldn’t help but wonder which ex-president would be next and what could be said about their lives, accomplishments and values.

The actuaries will tell you Jimmy Carter. The lifespans of Bill Clinton’s proximate relations being what they have been (and given his manifest physical aging), BC might not be far behind.

American history is now an apologetical subdiscipline, so my wager will be that the boundaries of discussion will rule out any sort of critique broadly embarrassing to the Democratic Party. Into the 1970s, Woodrow Wilson was treated congenially by high school history instructors of my acquaintance. Even today, it’s only in starboard venues that he’s given a harsh going over. It may be many decades before BO and BC are properly critiqued by academic historians. If they’re attacked in the interim, it will be from the left. Carter’s constituency on the left has always been weak, so he’ll be flayed far earlier.

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2414726 Fri, 07 Dec 2018 20:50:35 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2414726 No clue why Michael Walsh wanted a Marshall Plan for Eastern Europe in 1991. The place hadn’t faced any destruction of physical capital.

]]> By: Art Deco https://thenewneo.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-is-laid-to-rest/#comment-2414725 Fri, 07 Dec 2018 20:49:21 +0000 https://www.thenewneo.com/?p=82976#comment-2414725 Hard to abolish the top executive under the Constitution.

True, but it’s less difficult to reconfigure the executive branch and legislative and executive functions to provide for more streamlined policy-making. Jimmy Carter and Lloyd Cutler had some interest in that. Not anyone since.

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