Blogs and Stories
Happy Birthday, Dad
)
George H. W. Bush carries his son George W. Bush on his shoulders on the Yale campus. (Corbis)
On George H.W. Bush's 85th birthday—which celebrated Friday by skydiving—former President George W. Bush shares a personal written tribute from son to father, 43 to 41.
Exactly 10 years ago, coinciding with former president George H.W. Bush’s 75th birthday, a Texas governor named George W. Bush wrote an essay entitled “The First Son,” about his then more-famous father, for the men’s magazine P.O.V. Re-reading his tribute this week, unseen and not findable for the past decade, in anticipation of Bush 41’s birthday today, Bush 43 told The Daily Beast: “I wouldn’t change a word.”
I've lived with being "George Bush's son" all my life. Growing up, I probably didn't want to be like him. Today it's ironic that much of my career parallels his. He went to Yale. I went to Yale. He was a Navy pilot. I flew F-102s in the Texas Air National Guard. Now that I'm in political life, I like to say I've inherited half of his friends and all of his enemies. Of course, there will be some who will prejudge me, but that's OK: I don't expect to get all of the votes anyway. Being George Bush's son is a tremendous plus.
Click Image To View Gallery
The greatest gift that my dad has given me has been unconditional love. He loves me when times are good and he loves me when times are bad. He loves me when I've been successful and he loves me when I've failed. Take the 1994 campaign for governor, which no one thought I could win. I fought an uphill battle, but I had such a sense of security due to love that I was willing to take the risk. Because I feared neither failure nor success.
That love and confidence has always been there. (Even though, as the first of five kids, I tested my parents' patience more than once.) Growing up in Midland, Texas, I can remember clearly my dad saying, "Son, I can play catch with you now and throw the ball as hard as I can and you can catch it." There was a certain rite of passage when I could catch with my dad and he didn't have to hold back.
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
Stars Celebrate the Super Bowl
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Ritarita
Happy Birthday
And thanks for wrecking the country.
The tragedy's on us!
ElLamer
Come on, Daddy Bush was not that bad... It was Kiddie Bush who wrecked the country.
Genni2002
Yes, however, on closer inspection kiddie Bush did attribute his going into politics to his dad...so..well..
GM2009
Other than a few extremely serious crimes.
connie47
Short and to the point, Rita.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Ritarita
flaunt-
That's really so hilarious.
Please regale us with more clever.
oliverckerr
They are both fascists.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
aBigDeal
And Obama's policies are different, how?
Geez, if Bush I is fascist, then pretty much every president since Teddy Roosevelt was fascist.
Anytime a campaign contribution is accepted, and favors are returned, it's fascism. ( GM/Chrysler *cough* UAW *cough* SEIU *cough* Goldman Sachs *cough* Freddie *cough* Fannie )
bush, obama, clinton, pelosi, frank, dodd, stevens, etc.
One Big Orgy of Corruption™
GM2009
That they are. Hopefully one will soon croak and the other wearing ankle bracelets.
GM2009
aBigDeal
'And Obama's policies are different, how?'
You be the judge
'Geez, if Bush I is fascist, then pretty much every president since Teddy Roosevelt was fascist.'
You might have something there. Probably virtually every one was. Google fascism, study it and you will see what I mean, regardlessof what you ideaoloy or party affiliation is. People tent to use that word loosely today without fully appreciating it's history and meaning.
rodtanner
aBigDeal: "Geez, if Bush I is fascist, then pretty much every president since Teddy Roosevelt was fascist."
Fascism connotes tyrannical dictatorship. While that accurately describes Bush 43, governance by bribe as you astutely describe is more accurately termed plutocratic, oligarchic, or arguably aristocratic.
lindy1945
i think you should all just get over it and forget about the bush's! just wait until obama's done with ya, you will be cryin for ole georgie back!
malonlabe
Right on, I mean raking up 10 trillion in debt just for pet projects, nationalizing banks, and auto companies and watching as unemployment was rapidly approaching 10% he was such a fascist.
opps sorry that was the last 5 months under comrade Obama
jseiler
um, you may want to do more research on the 10 trillion boys and girls, most of that is left over from Mr. Bush. Though I will fault Obama for continuing a bunch of Bush policies.But that far from makes him a bad President, in fact he is the best we have had in about 30 years. If you ask me we could use a little Socialism as Reagan/Bush Capitalism has worked so well, NOT!
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Utaneus
George W actually was a pilot, he logged a few hundred hours.
GM2009
I threw up behind some F102s
Spasticula
The best thing you could do for the country right now W, is take your sorry, simpleton ass and your reprehensible family and go live in a cave somewhere.
ElLamer
He has been keeping out of the media, we should give him credit for that! Of course I am pissed at him along with pretty much everyone else but but he had been keeping out of the political debate which I think is fitting and should be acknowledged.
Bunx05
Agreed. It's one of the very few positive things he's done.
GM2009
He's back. Just appeared on Colbert
aBigDeal
Wow, so much hate. I thought liberals were tolerant.
numonk
Nope, and your mother may be a whore. An abortion fiend. A crackhead. And a Motley Crue fan.
Who knows.
But us independants will be tolerant, no matter how much shit comes from either direction, we already hate both of the conservative and liberal camps for subliming the American intelligence in an age where it should be ripe.
Oh, and I LOVE your mother's new prada bag.
Ritarita
numonk-
?
GM2009
Tolerant of what? War criminals who destroyed the nation? Sure thing.
aBigDeal
"War criminals who destroyed the nation?"
Hyperbole much?
Obama pretty much has the same policies. Is he a war criminal?
Thanks, numonk. That was insightful.
Spasticula
numonk. "subliming" the American intelligence???
Look up words before you misuse them. "Sublime" is neither a verb, nor does it make sense in your sentence.
GM2009
I hear Spain is nice this time of year
garryboyle
I wish this piece was a joke. It's a pretty thin piece of writing. I feel like I'm listening to Opie, at age 15, talking fondly about Andy Griffith.
"Dad's a good hunter, too, and one Christmas he gave me a shotgun, a .410. I would go with him to Louisiana to shoot ducks. Those are fond memories."
GM2009
Edit: "Dad's a good hunter, too, and one Christmas he gave me a shotgun, a .410. I would go with him to Louisiana to shoot ducks. Dick shot his friend in the face when he was drunk hid from the cops. Those are fond memories."
theconsigliere
Yours is the most salient comment. GWB has only a scintilla of depth as a thinker, writer. The neocons played him and we all have suffered.
jseiler
A .410 is a not a shotgun you would hunt ducks with. From the way those sentences are written one would assume that W went huntin' with Daddy and his .410. I hope he is a better hunter than a president. But I doubt it.
submarinemn
Happy Birthday President Bush. I wish you all the best. You are truely a man of great integrity. It has to be diffucult to handle the endless barrage of anger from those who have a selective memory of post 9 11 histroy. We were ALL behind you then and many of us are proud of you now.
ElLamer
Many of us were behind him then, thats true. Some of us however, arguably most of us, have looked at all the intelligence reports he didn't read, the pressure his people put on the intelligence community to only find evidence for Iraq and so on.
Most of us, who didn't buy into this "if you question us you are unpatriotic" nonsense have taken a closer look and changed our minds on the matter.
Who really is the true patriot here? Looking at other countries, the populous who believe the regimes propaganda are obviously not the true patriots.....
also interesting, are you sure you are paying attention when confusing the two bushes birthdays? 41 is turning 85 and 43 was asleep at the switch during 9/11
patriotinexile
ElLamer: Nice to see you actually have security clearance. At what point do you think you actually had more information available to you than the President of the United States?
It is amazing to see the hatred and vitriol with which you all make your posts. I keep seeing more and more stupidity coming from the progressive leftists. I will state my opinion, and not push it on you as fact. My opinion is the UN created enough of a stall tactic to allow Saddam Hussein to move his weapons out of Iraq. Having said that, I will state this FACT. The UN has shown its dislike for the United States in all of its actions. Even with North Korea. All they want to do is create one resolution after another. Those are not worth the time it takes to create. The UN does not place the security of the United States or its allies in any significant position of importance.
So, let's let the progressives out there start walking the walk. Come up with viable solutions that don't include government takeover of our lives and we may start listen to what you have to say. Let's step away from the Person A and Person B scenarios. This is where Person A thinks he/she has a right to certain things (healthcare, job, welfare, etc...) only as long as Person B is responsible to foot the bill. Individual responsibility with individuals contributing of their own free will to charitable organizations is the only way this country needs to run welfare. The government should stick to the true intentions of the Founding Fathers. Limited with no intrusion in to our Liberties and Freedoms.
jseiler
I didn't have any security clearance and it was quite obvious to me and any thinking individual at the time that the Iraq war (quagmire) was boondoggle.It may be interesting to note that Saddam was willing to go into exile in early 2003. We could have accomplished the same thing with no losses to American personnel and Iraqi infrastructure. Bush is a war criminal.
Genni2002
Sounds like you are looking for birthday lollipops and ice cream. By expressing your fear that he is having a 'difficult' time handling the negative comments, you know you sort of confirm what folks are saying wrt his maturity / capability level. Wipe your nose for crying out loud.
enigmagnetic
Selective memory of 9/11? You mean like when he tried to say there was a link with Iraq and Al Qaeds?
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--joebloeJessica150
Sure, I was behind him until he %$#ked it all up.
GM2009
The majority are behind seeing him prosecuted for his crimes. Is that what you are proud of? His crimes?
SirTash
Come on people, the man is just wishing his dad a happy birthday. So, cut him some slack and stop trashing him. And Happy Birthday President George H. W. Bush, you are a great man and a father of great men.
DutyScorps
If anyone other than Bush 43 had written this article it would have been praised as an expression of the love of a son for his father. Because it was written by Bush 43 we end up with rants that reflect a complete lack of compassion and humanity. I cant get over how one eyed and lacking in substance many of there comments are. Why can't we just recognise that 43 loves his dad, and is man enough to say so.Perhaps some of the contributors are envious of this father son relationship.Maybe another answer is that some of the contributors are as one dimentional as they suggest Bush 41 and 43 are.
Carole65
Yes, so much for the change in discourse suggested by President Obama that has not taken root in their souls.
Happy Birthday, George HW Bush
squiggy
Happy B'Day Daddy Bush. Best wishes to Momma Bush as well.
whitebreadtoast
I'm not a Bush supporter, but I wholly agree with you.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--ozman2000garryboyle
I disagree. It's not much of an expression of love until the very last line. Most of the piece is about himself.
GM2009
Yes, I wish my Dad and I were both fascists reponsible for the death of hundreds of thousands and the suffering of millions.
rayella
DutyScorps, I agree wholeheartedly. To all the people frothing at the mouth at the very mention of our former president's name: Why start spewing all this hate in the context of this article? GWB is human... not just some convenient target for the concentrated liberal rage at the past 30 years of conservative leadership. It's so easy for you all to blame him for everything that's wrong in the world -- when the tragedies we have endured are complicated, not one-sided issues that can all be traced back to a single person's mistakes.
jseiler
Not from me. It's always easy to talk about how great your Dad and everything else is when you have never had to worry about a damn thing in your life. A rich kid wishing his daddy, another rich kid, happy birthday. Do we really care?
jds8181
George W Bush is the the spawn of Satan. Enough said. Happy Birthday dad...go f*ck yourself.
numonk
Eff Jesus. Eff Satan. They are both dead and irrelevant to our world.
GM2009
And that's generous.
downbytheriver00
I've got to believe that the editors of DB sat around the table one day and said, "Hey let's trot out this schmaltzy article written by GWB about his dad and see how many of the usual bitter left-wing posters show up to rip him." I'll bet they're having a nice giggle over their morning coffee. Why this article is considered news and needs to be posted here is beyond me.
Genni2002
CB 's 'My Other Mom and Pop' article also mentions George HW's birthday skydiving which made me think we would be treated to another tribute in DB.
It is all dandy to use this website as a forum for this if he wants and am not saying anything about GW's writing style (goodness knows I don't have a leg to stand on - but then wasn't in the highest level of responsibility job in the free world either!). He seems to say: everything I learned, I learned from my dad. Not really happy with the job he did so don't think that he should be blogging about with only positive feedback expectations.
enigmagnetic
Thanks for messing up the country Dubya. 4000 dead in Iraq. Way to go.
artois
Hey it's 4000 not claiming first time unemployment!
GeorgeAlbert44
The reason this country is in so much trouble is the childish and foolish people that commented in such nasty manner on President Bush. You folks that make 8th grade snide comments, really, why don't you just crawl back under the rocks from which you came.
obammmy
let's see... that flop eared socialist in office would say to his father....?
djschmike
I applaud the DB for allowing W to write this article about his father. As a moderate, independent voter, it's nice to see a news outlet unafraid of allowing many different voices to be a part of their site. No, the article is not well-written. Had it been, many would have assumed W had not written it, given his less-than-articulate nature. But it's a well-intentioned tribute from a son to his father, regarding two men who contributed much to the history of this country. Whether or not you agree with either man's politics, people need to stop being so divisive and small-minded. All your comments do is spawn more bitterness and hatred. I think our country has had enough of that.
quick2no
My, everyone is mostly really mad here. I guess birthday wishes are not in order today.
oliverckerr
They are both fascists, and the enforcer, the old smugletarian switch, Bar-Donna Buch-Corleone, she is the worst.
Go to The New York Times and enter these three words in the archive slot: "Jacklegs jumping up." See what you get. The president of United States was talking about the Beast banned poet, Michael Stephen Levinson.
The next day, when the reporters on the campaign trail wanted to know who the "jacklegs" was George, the Elder said he was only running against Pat Buchanan, and of course would not admit to having read Levinson's request for access which FCC mastered the station's denial and that case went all the way to the Supreme Court where Rhenquist had the case moved up, out of order, and mislead the other Justices, telling them in their Friday conference, "There is nothing here. It's a frivolous case."
Well, the other justices weren't going to argue with The Chief, because the papers had been moved up that Friday a.m., before their conference. They had not read them. Interesting. Very Fascist. Rhenquist developed his own First Amendment issue - esophagus throat cancer.
Old lady Bush made it clear face to face with Levinson that she despised him. She got her wimp husband to do an Executive Order about continued surveillance of the poet prophet, and that Executive order is why the son sealed his father's records.
It's all in "New World Hors D'oeuvres," so you can understand why your FB-Eye broke into the Bowker ISBN data base and changed "New World Hors D'oeuvres" from a Trade book with full returns to a "Specialty" book of witty humor for people aged 13 - 17.
What do you know grasshopper? The uncle Preston Bush was doing business with Hitler well into 1942.
rayella
Can you please crawl back to whatever nut-house you escaped from?
oliverckerr
Is the truth one of your prob limbs?
Go to The New York Times and using the archive slot, enter the words "jacklegs jumping up," and see what you get. Visit michaelslevinson.com and see what you get. Go to youtube.com/poetprophet and see what you get.
Womentoo
Hey, we all celebrate u because you will never sit in that presidential seat again............dur, ah, yep .
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.