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Happy Birthday, Dad
Dad loves the outdoors. He often took me fishing when I was a kid. We'd go fishing for bluefish off the coast of Maine. I learned the skills of fishing from listening to him, and the joy of fishing from watching him. 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.
I wouldn’t have gone into politics had I not seen a man with his integrity intact go into the system and come out with that integrity still intact.
Today, bass fishing and speed golf are some of our favorite things to do together. (The most memorable place we played golf has been Augusta National, which was magnificent.) We also played a lot of horseshoes when he was president and when he was vice president, both a Camp David and at our house in Kennebunkport. Jim Nantz, Fred Couples, and Dad and I had a wonderful match one time.
The moment I was proudest of my dad was sitting there watching him be sworn in as the president of the United States. My mother, holding the Bible, my dad, holding her hand and over his shoulder was Washington, D.C. The Mall, the crowds of people: It was a very powerful moment.
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George W. Bush talks to his father as he sits at his desk in the Oval Office for the first time on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2001. (AP Photo)
I wouldn't have gone into politics had I not seen a man with his integrity intact go into the system and come out with that integrity still intact. He's kind, thoughtful, generous, with a keen intellect and an enormous energy level. We share the same values: hard work, honesty, respect for others, the desire to do well, the love of family. I've learned them all from him.
My dad and I continue to have an honest relationship, very straightforward. I considered him a mentor, not only as a young lad but also as an adult. And he's still a mentor today. I occasionally talk to him about policy matters. He has great judgment. I'm George Bush's son—and I think the world of him.
George W. Bush served as the 43rd president of the U.S. from 2001 to 2009.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Why America Must Learn to Bow
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
Going Rogue: The Index
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
Happy Birthday
And thanks for wrecking the country.
The tragedy's on us!
Come on, Daddy Bush was not that bad... It was Kiddie Bush who wrecked the country.
Yes, however, on closer inspection kiddie Bush did attribute his going into politics to his dad...so..well..
Other than a few extremely serious crimes.
Short and to the point, Rita.
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flaunt-
That's really so hilarious.
Please regale us with more clever.
They are both fascists.
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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™
That they are. Hopefully one will soon croak and the other wearing ankle bracelets.
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.
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.
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!
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
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!
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George W actually was a pilot, he logged a few hundred hours.
I threw up behind some F102s
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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.
Agreed. It's one of the very few positive things he's done.
He's back. Just appeared on Colbert
Wow, so much hate. I thought liberals were tolerant.
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.
numonk-
?
Tolerant of what? War criminals who destroyed the nation? Sure thing.
"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.
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I hear Spain is nice this time of year
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."
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."
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Selective memory of 9/11? You mean like when he tried to say there was a link with Iraq and Al Qaeds?
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Sure, I was behind him until he %$#ked it all up.
The majority are behind seeing him prosecuted for his crimes. Is that what you are proud of? His crimes?
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.
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.
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
Happy B'Day Daddy Bush. Best wishes to Momma Bush as well.
I'm not a Bush supporter, but I wholly agree with you.
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I disagree. It's not much of an expression of love until the very last line. Most of the piece is about himself.
Yes, I wish my Dad and I were both fascists reponsible for the death of hundreds of thousands and the suffering of millions.
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.
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?
George W Bush is the the spawn of Satan. Enough said. Happy Birthday dad...go f*ck yourself.
Eff Jesus. Eff Satan. They are both dead and irrelevant to our world.
And that's generous.
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.
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.
Thanks for messing up the country Dubya. 4000 dead in Iraq. Way to go.
Hey it's 4000 not claiming first time unemployment!
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.
let's see... that flop eared socialist in office would say to his father....?
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.
My, everyone is mostly really mad here. I guess birthday wishes are not in order today.
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.
Can you please crawl back to whatever nut-house you escaped from?
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.
Hey, we all celebrate u because you will never sit in that presidential seat again............dur, ah, yep .
Happy Birthday President George H. W. Bush. And thank you President George W. Bush for keeping us safe from terrorist and for standing up for and believing in American citizens.
Come ON, people, show a little class!! Whether you agree or disagree with what these men did in office, these are two former presidents of this country and as such deserve a little respect.
They aren't the ones who look bad here, that's for sure.
I'll say this nice thing about President Bush: he wasn't much of a president, but compared to his idiot son, he was a brilliant statesman.
George Dubya B*sh is an unindicted war criminal, and therefore deserve no respect whatsoever.
Ordinarily, one could show respect for the office he held. However, since he acquired that office through fraudulent means, I don't feel compelled to extend him such consideration.
No they are the ones that look bad here and everywhere. A murdering liar, who used religion and fear to impose his homophobic, mysognistic, heartless, middle class siphoning, war hungry, oil craving, econo destructive agenda, deserves neither our respect nor pity. The only thing he deserves is his memory as a lunatic.
The Office of The Presidency of the United States of America has earned respect for representing the peaceful and democratic transition of power for 233 consecutive years.
That respect does not automatically extend to all who have served and most certainly not thees two.
Happy Birthday Bush 41!
Hope its your last
I may not like Bush 43's policies but some of the comments here are just downright ugly. Can't we express our thoughts on his policies and impact on the country somewhere else? Afterall, this is a tribute from a son, our former president, to his father, another former president.
Baby Doc blog
Does not seem appropriate.
The nature of brains
Ritarita well built
Sarah Palin flat
I don't think everyone is reading this article with the care I would expect of intelligent people. Let's clarify some points here.
1. It is G. H. W. Bush's (41) Birthday.
2. G. W. Bush (43) wrote this piece 10 years ago. It's not new.
3. The country is still reeling from
Eight years of
Disastrous mismanagement
He was an asshole ten years ago.
He is an asshole today.
Take your pick.
Some day it may be possible to get beyond the significant damage three generations of the Bush family have done to the United States, all for their personal financial well-being. The name Bush represents a curse for America going back to the 1930s. If you are interested in learning the truth, read "Family of Secrets" by investigative journalist Kevin Baker. This son's tribute to his father yet another cover-up to the greed and evil represented within the entire Bush family.
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I submit to all of you commenting that it's pathetic arsehats like yourselves that ruined this country...
Look at yourselves...You can't even let a person pay respects to his father, because you think your hatred is so much more important... Well it isn't... It's sad...
G.W. Bush served this country at a time when it was falling apart... In fifty years your own stupidity will be laughed at by ten year old children reading history books...
Useless webtards like yourselves ruined the US with the same self-indulgent self-righteous piety that you are displaying in this comment section... and you can't even face that... Making you all the saddest joke of all...
When China was visiting the U.S., during one of their speeches, a heckler in the audience threw out some comments about China policy. The heckler was removed. Instead, from your way of thinking, GW more rightly could have said: 'Listen, the guy is a buffoon. I don't know what he is saying. I don't agree with him. In America he can speak his mind.'
On Fox, Rush-bo, DB, whatever, you can really stir up the extremely mean spirited discourse pot when you feel like it.
You have the audacity to actually tell people to stop being angry for a minute to 'celebrate' a birthday. Some of these people cannot afford to have a frigging birthday cake because they cannot afford one!!!! Are you saying that wanting to have a birthday cake is self-indulgent?
Both Bushes presumably sense the rising tide of hate, hysteria, and violence in Republican circles as it becomes clear Obama will be a President of great consequence. Would it not be appropriate for them, as the most prominent Republican figures, to issue a statement urging everyone to calm down and use civil discourse only?
But would such a statement be an admission that Republicans are encouraging and consorting with lawless elements? So I would not hold my breath waiting for these two to do anything more than give banal, $150,000 a crack speeches.
The lawless element
Of the Republican Party
Has spiraled way beyond the control
Of the Bush Family.
you guys are pretty sick. The man writes about his dads birthday and you are attacking him still it is all his fault the economy is in the toilet. Give me a break. You probably believe Obama is gonna be the savior of the world get a clue i got some swampland anyone wanna buy it.
Thank you.
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