Editor's note: This is the 41st entry in the writer's project to read one book about each of the U.S. Presidents in the year prior to Election Day 2016. Follow Marcus' progress at the @44in52Twitter account and the44 in 52 Spreadsheet.
One of the better parts of this project has been to see clearly how a president's legacy evolves over time.
George H.W. Bush is a perfect example: a man maligned by members of both parties at the end of his only term in office, he has lived to see that legacy reassessed 25 years later.
SEE ALSO:Remembering Ronald Reagan, the Charmer-In-ChiefPerhaps this had something to do with the relatively controversial presidencies of Bush's two successors: Bill Clinton and Bush's own son, George W. Or perhaps, I think after reading Jon Meacham's book on Bush Sr., Destiny and Power,it would have happened anyway.
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Meacham's book -- published around the time I started this project and was contemplating the mountainous biography of George Washington -- takes us from Bush's New England upbringing, to Texan oil man, to president of the United States.
What we find is an underrated man whose personal story is especially underrated. A war hero and a colorful careerist, Bush spent his life dogged by accusations that his success was all to do with the family wealth -- no matter how hard he worked on his own.
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Bush's tenure wasn't perfect by any means. There were many struggles over the economy and the unemployment rate, the controversial appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, a military operation in Panama that raised eyebrows, and the drafting of NAFTA, a trade agreement that has remained controversial through the 2016 election.
And then there was his 1988 presidential campaign, most memorable for the infamous "Willie Horton" ad. Sadly, the commercial doesn't seem so outlandish in our current political environment, where we're used to outright racist attacks from a presidential candidate.
But in 1988, the kind of campaigning that drew attention to a black convict was shocking -- and underscored Bush's complicated relationship with race throughout his political career.
Similarly, Bush's comments following the 1984 vice-presidential debate, in which he said he "kicked a little ass" against Geraldine Ferrarro caused a huge stir at the time. It was even criticized as "locker room talk." That would hardly be the case today.
In an op-ed published in the New York Timesin mid-October of this year, Meacham revisited the "grace" of Bush's time in office and put it firmly in the context of 2016. He mentioned an anecdote from the book in which Bush rebuffed a proposal from Donald Trump to be Bush's VP candidate in 1988; Bush's opinion was that such a move was "strange and unbelievable."
Meacham also noted the role of Roger Ailes in both campaigns, but drew this distinction:
The difference between 1988 and 2016, however, is that for Mr. Bush such attacks were the means to an end: a victory that would enable him to focus on what he truly cared about, which was governance.
For Mr. Trump, the means arethe end — he is, as Jeb Bush aptly put it during the 2016 primaries, the chaos candidate. The elder Bush used to dismiss campaign posturing with a phrase of Mao’s, calling such blasts “empty cannons of rhetoric.” Mr. Trump can’t get enough of such cannon fire.
Bush himself recognized his lack of colorful character; the way he was almost an afterthought after the eight years of Ronald Reagan. After two solid terms as Reagan's vice president, Bush knew what is was like to serve in his predecessor's shadow.
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The first person to go straight from the vice presidency to the presidency since Martin Van Buren, Bush still had accomplishments worth noting: the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Immigration Act of 1990. He founded the Points of Light Foundation, and successfully handled the relationship with the Soviet Union and, after its dissolution, Russia.
(I'd be remiss in not recounting the Gulf War, too, a conflict seen as a rousing success for the United States, but a conflict that wasn't without its criticism but I'm hardly the person to delve into the geo-political consequences of the conflict and what's followed in the 15 years since.)
Meacham also gave a peak into Bush's collapse in the final days of the 1992 campaign. He was frustrated with the ailing economy, and worn out by the battle with Clinton and Texas billionaire Ross Perot -- not to mention the fact he was fighting his own battle with Grave's disease.
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Bush's work has continued since he left office. There's his work in partnership with Bill Clinton, a friendship that yielded some humorous anecdotes underscoring the difference between the two presidents. Bush's grumpiness about Clinton's tendency to shake hands with everyone in the room, making the two former presidents late, was particularly entertaining.
And it's these anecdotes that help flesh out Bush as a person, a crucial part of Bush's legacy. The only single term president in the last 36 years may have had his drawbacks -- but as his successors faced their own larger struggles, the first president Bush's foibles have faded into history.
Days to read Washington: 16Days to read Adams: 11Days to read Jefferson: 10Days to read Madison: 13Days to read Monroe: 6Days to read J. Q. Adams: 10Days to read Jackson: 11Days to read Van Buren: 9Days to read Harrison: 6Days to read Tyler: 3Days to read Polk: 8Days to read Taylor: 8Days to read Fillmore: 14Days to read Pierce: 1Days to read Buchanan: 1Days to read Lincoln: 12Days to read Johnson: 8Days to read Grant: 27Days to read Hayes: 1Days to read Garfield: 3Days to read Arthur: 17Days to hear Cleveland: 3Days to read Harrison: 4Days to read McKinley: 5Days to read T. Roosevelt: 15Days to read Taft: 13Days to read Wilson: 10Days to read Harding: 3Days to read Coolidge: 7Days to read Hoover: 9Days to read FDR: 11Days to read Truman: 14Days to read Eisenhower: 11Days to read JFK: 10Days to read LBJ: 6Days to read Nixon: 6Days to read Ford: 4Days to listen to Carter: 2Days to listen to Reagan: 8Days to read GWHB: 8
Days behind schedule: 9
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