Mourn Bush Sr, but don’t celebrate him for what he did to America and the world

This article was originally published on Spectator USA.

George Herbert Walker Bush, America’s 41st president, became a figure of nostalgia long before he died Friday night. He was already a symbol of the Oval Office’s lost dignity within months of his departure from the White House, following his loss to Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential election. Bush, in contrast to Clinton, was said to have been an adult. He was a member of the “Greatest Generation” and had seen combat in World War II, in contrast to Clinton, a Baby Boomer who had avoided the Vietnam-era draft. So strong was the desire for a return to mature leadership that in 1998 and 1999 Bush’s son, Texas governor George W. Bush, shot to the top ranks of prospective Republican nominees for 2000 partly because voters confused him with his father.

The Bush 41 myth will swell to obscene proportions over the next couple of weeks, much as John McCain’s reputation did earlier this year.