# Former first lady Barbara Bush has decided to end medical treatment... \[Update: RIP\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 15, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458 "2018-04-15T19:43:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/41 "2018-04-18T02:39:56Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I don’t remember how long ago it was but I saw her on TV when she was speaking at some women’s college. She said that she thought there could be a future First Spouse in the audience, and whoever **he** might be she wished him well. She got a lots of laughs for that. Rachel Maddow just discussed this on her show about an hour ago. It was at Wellesley in 1990. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/42 "2018-04-18T02:52:53Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Apparently we’ve all agreed to pretend she was a nice person. Does anyone else have a vague (or less vague than my own) recollection that Al Franken mentioned her in his book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”? I think that was the one - it certainly wasn’t his most recent book. Anyway, _IF_ I remember correctly, he happened to sit next to her on an airplane, tried to be nice to her, and she was an absolute bitch to him. That’s just one data point, of course. She might have been a nice person overall and was just having a bad day, and/or was especially miffed at Democrats due to some issue of the time. I’ve acted badly a few times in my life too; most of us have. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/43 "2018-04-18T04:28:59Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Does anyone else have a vague (or less vague than my own) recollection that Al Franken mentioned her in his book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”? I think that was the one - it certainly wasn’t his most recent book. > > Anyway, _IF_ I remember correctly, he happened to sit next to her on an airplane, tried to be nice to her, and she was an absolute bitch to him. You can hear Al tell the story [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10-6IabaABM), but no, Al was definitely not being nice to her. He was needling her about George Bush and, what looked like then (and now), his ill-suited run for the presidency. Barbara went into dismissive elite mode pretty easily, but I’m not entirely surprised. Some mothers are hyper-protective of their sons. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/44 "2018-04-18T04:42:35Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Does anyone else have a vague (or less vague than my own) recollection that Al Franken mentioned her in his book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”? I think that was the one - it certainly wasn’t his most recent book. > > Anyway, _IF_ I remember correctly, he happened to sit next to her on an airplane, tried to be nice to her, and she was an absolute bitch to him. > > That’s just one data point, of course. She might have been a nice person overall and was just having a bad day, and/or was especially miffed at Democrats due to some issue of the time. I’ve acted badly a few times in my life too; most of us have. I remember that now as well. I don’t remember the details, but he thought she was a total bitch. I have no idea what people are really like. The impressions on TV are carefully manufactured, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/45 "2018-04-18T05:55:58Z")
Lot of hate spilling out over the net about her, one would think Ilsa Koch had just died. Mrs Bush would have been amused. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/46 "2018-04-18T12:14:21Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > A friend of mine is in one of those body bags she didn’t want to waste her beautiful mind on. I fucking hope it hurt when she died. Sorry about your friend. If it’s any consolation, [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/barbara-bush-beautiful-mind/) suggested that her remarks were not really about the war itself (which hadn’t started at that point), but rather about the media constantly hyping and speculating on the whole thing in the weeks before combat operations actually began: > [@Snopes](#): > > Read within the context of the full interview, it was a tiny bit more clear that Mrs. Bush’s “beautiful mind” statement referred to her desire not to become mesmerized by the pre-war media speculation of what such an invasion would mean, what sorts of weaponry and defenses U.S. troops might well be walking into, which troops would be committed and when they’d be deployed, how long the war would last, and how high the body count might be. > . > . > . > Mrs. Bush’s point that news of that moment was much more about what could or might happen rather than what was happening was valid. Her comment was not meant as a dismissal of actual deaths or suffering (troops had not yet been engaged at the time of her remark), but of news coverage that amounted to one expert after another’s making predictions about what they saw as likely to occur. ---
**Author:** ![txjim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/47 "2018-04-18T13:13:55Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Does anyone else have a vague (or less vague than my own) recollection that Al Franken mentioned her in his book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”? I think that was the one - it certainly wasn’t his most recent book. > > Anyway, _IF_ I remember correctly, he happened to sit next to her on an airplane, tried to be nice to her, and she was an absolute bitch to him. > > That’s just one data point, of course. She might have been a nice person overall and was just having a bad day, and/or was especially miffed at Democrats due to some issue of the time. I’ve acted badly a few times in my life too; most of us have. What is Al Franken’s definition of “trying to be nice?” ---
**Author:** ![fervour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@fervour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fervour)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/48 "2018-04-18T14:21:43Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Sorry about your friend. If it’s any consolation, [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/barbara-bush-beautiful-mind/) suggested that her remarks were not really about the war itself (which hadn’t started at that point), but rather about the media constantly hyping and speculating on the whole thing in the weeks before combat operations actually began: The first thing I did when I heard she was dying was google the “beautiful mind” incident. I read the Snopes article. Snopes gives her the most generous out. Snopes says that journalists of the time were all about speculation and “the cost”. Snopes said Barb issued these words before the war. I say, “THAT IS WHEN YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT IT!” This useless fool thought that talking about what the costs of war before the was happened was, well, useless. IF YOU ARE CONTEMPLATING KILLING OTHER PEOPLE THE TIME ABOUT TALKING ABOUT IT IS BEFORE THE ACTION. Barb, you stupid, stupid, entitled fool. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/49 "2018-04-18T14:35:50Z")
[I didn’t know they lost a daughter to leukemia.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/04/17/one-last-time-barbara-bush-has-already-faced-a-death-more-painful-than-her-own/?utm_term=.28743a78d671) ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/50 "2018-04-18T15:29:11Z")
[And like clockwork, the lunatic fringe responds with the usual class](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/18/outrage-as-california-prof-calls-barbara-bush-amazing-racist-and-says-shes-happy-witch-is-dead.html). Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/51 "2018-04-18T15:42:19Z")
I updated the thread title to indicate Barbara Bush’s passing. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/52 "2018-04-18T15:45:32Z")
I’ve never supported a Republican for anything in my entire life, but she was one of the good ones. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/53 "2018-04-18T15:47:22Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > [And like clockwork, the lunatic fringe responds with the usual class](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/18/outrage-as-california-prof-calls-barbara-bush-amazing-racist-and-says-shes-happy-witch-is-dead.html). > > Regards, > Shodan Just one troll. She by no means speaks for anyone but herself. Of course Fox News will make a huge deal out of this and imply this is the typical liberal elite belief. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/54 "2018-04-18T15:50:10Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > [And like clockwork, the lunatic fringe responds with the usual class](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/18/outrage-as-california-prof-calls-barbara-bush-amazing-racist-and-says-shes-happy-witch-is-dead.html). > > Regards, > Shodan Not sure what the point of this is. I mean, no shit. Same if someone from the left died. At any rate, I respected her and 41 (the only Republican president in my lifetime that I supported.) Rest in peace. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/55 "2018-04-18T15:53:57Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > [And like clockwork, the lunatic fringe responds with the usual class](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/18/outrage-as-california-prof-calls-barbara-bush-amazing-racist-and-says-shes-happy-witch-is-dead.html). > > Regards, > Shodan Indeed. > **[Roger Stone Disses Barbara Bush as a 'Nasty Drunk' on News of Her Death -...](https://www.thewrap.com/roger-stone-barbara-bush-was-a-nasty-drunk/)** > > "Barbara Bush drank so much booze, if they cremated her ... her body would burn for three days," says Stone in an additional Instagram dig ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/56 "2018-04-18T16:38:32Z")
The first Bush family never seemed all that bad to me, even if the second one was really annoying and politically incompetent. George H.W. Bush and Barbara were together for a really long time and I am sure they loved each other very much. I remember once as a kid, on vacation in Maine, we walked on the beach past the Bush family house in Kennebunkport. My mom yelled (jokingly) “BARBARA!!! GIVE US SOMETHING TO EAT!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/57 "2018-04-18T16:55:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **Baker** > I don’t remember how long ago it was but I saw her on TV when she was speaking at some women’s college. She said that she thought there could be a future First Spouse in the audience, and whoever he might be she wished him well. She got a lots of laughs for that. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Rachel Maddow just discussed this on her show about an hour ago. It was at Wellesley in 1990. What did Maddow have to say? Because I well remember that that First Spouse comment was not random. I’m going to pull something I posted in another forum a while back. > [@](#): > > In 1990, Barbara Bush (First Lady to President George Bush the Elder) was asked to give the commencement speech at Wellesley College. For those who don’t know it, Wellesley is one of the Seven Sisters, all women, very liberal. Diane Sawyer graduated from there; so did Nora Ephron, Madeleine Albright, and Hillary Clinton. (Although I think Albright wasn’t well-known in 1990, and Hillary wouldn’t be First Lady for another two years.) This choice didn’t go over too well with a lot of Wellesley students. The typical reaction was, “But what has she done that’s noteworthy? Her husband is the President/former VP/former CIA chief, but what’s _she_ done?” And it should be pointed out that Barbara Pierce did not finish college. She went to Smith, another of the Seven Sisters, but dropped out to marry Poppy. And since Wellesley is so left-wing, part of the issue was students not liking her husband. So there was a petition, and a protest, and the faculty and admins had to further review their decision. > > And then there was a backlash against the backlash. I remember scathing editorials, condemning basically my whole generation (I was class of ’92, though not at Wellesley), or at least the females, as a bunch of ungrateful brats who didn’t appreciate all the sacrifices our mothers had made for us, and who didn’t have what it took, anyway, to run a house and raise kids. because we’d had every last thing done for us by our sainted mothers. (Stay tuned.) My own mom asked my opinion without first telling me hers. I replied pretty much the way a Wellesleyan would have…and I got an earful about how wrong I was. Being a wife and mother IS a job; didn’t I know that?! A female professor at my school further deconstructed the “We don’t like her husband” objection, because it was wrong to think of a married woman as merely an extension of her husband. And where did we get these big ideas anyway? > > Where? From our own moms, that’s where. And our female teachers. And the media. I’m Gen-X, at least by birth year. My parents were older, but my classmates’ mothers tended to be boomers. And they had told us, over and over and **over** , “You don’t have to be just a housewife. You don’t even have to be a nurse, teacher, secretary: the traditional female roles. You can be a doctor, a lawyer, engineer, astronaut! You can be anything you want to be!” We heard it a lot, and I really don’t recall “wife and mother” being presented as a valid choice. And about that “stay tuned”. Not all of us had mothers who did everything domestically. Some of us, including me, took on a lot of the household chores so our mothers could work. Maybe the moms worked because they chose to (career), or maybe because they had to (husband under-earning or absent). Some of the daughters also had partial responsibility for younger siblings: not full motherhood, but certainly a taste of it. And I know in my case, it convinced me that this was not what I wanted to spend my whole life doing. > > And about that “extension of her husband” charge. Depends on the husband, IMO. There is a world of difference between George Herbert Walker Bush and the clowns who raised my contemporaries. Or didn’t raise us, in many cases. That was a common factor with a lot of Gen-Xers: bio-dad was a deadbeat, and stepdad tolerated us, if even that. That’s one reason why so many of our moms worked outside the home. And it was a factor in many divorces: wife wanted to work, or complete her education so she **could** work in her chosen field, and husband wasn’t down with that. We might have been more open to the idea of “stand by your man” if we’d known more men worth standing by. > > I did hear and read some of the address, at the time. Because of that and other things, I no longer think being a wife and mother is “just”: that it’s easy or inconsequential. But I’m telling you, my generation was sent a **very** different message. When my mom asked me that, the answer I gave was the answer I honestly thought she wanted to hear. If she wanted me to think and believe otherwise, she did a poor job of conditioning me. Our mothers, collectively and individually, raised us to be a certain way. And they didn’t like how their own words sounded when they were played back. And on further reflection, I still don’t have a problem with being a wife and mother, but I do have a problem with who Barbara Bush was the mother **of**. If Dubya and Jeb are examples of her finest work, no thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/58 "2018-04-18T17:19:34Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > I’ve never supported a Republican for anything in my entire life, but she was one of the good ones. RIP. > [@Jacquernagy](#): > > The first Bush family never seemed all that bad to me, even if the second one was really annoying and politically incompetent. I feel the same way. I don’t remember either of the Carters nor to I remember Laura Bush, but other than the Obamas, the first Bushes were my favorite first family _as people_. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/59 "2018-04-18T17:39:02Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Just one troll. She by no means speaks for anyone but herself. > > Of course Fox News will make a huge deal out of this and imply this is the typical liberal elite belief. She also encouraged people to call her and listed her “home number,” which was actually a [mental health hotline](https://eoss.asu.edu/counseling/services/crisis). So how many people who really needed help couldn’t get through? ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458/60 "2018-04-19T04:32:35Z")
> [@fervour](#): > > The first thing I did when I heard she was dying was google the “beautiful mind” incident. I read the Snopes article. > > Snopes gives her the most generous out. Snopes says that journalists of the time were all about speculation and “the cost”. > Snopes said Barb issued these words before the war. I say, “THAT IS WHEN YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT IT!” This useless fool thought that talking about what the costs of war before the was happened was, well, useless. IF YOU ARE CONTEMPLATING KILLING OTHER PEOPLE THE TIME ABOUT TALKING ABOUT IT IS BEFORE THE ACTION. Barb, you stupid, stupid, entitled fool. Yeah. The _context_ of Babs’ remarks was that her son and his handlers were all over the TV, lying their faces off about how we had to hurry up and attack Iraq right damn now, or there’d be a smoking mushroom cloud, and it would all be so cheap and quick and everyone would love us for it. Meanwhile, anyone who tried to slow their roll was being called a liberal lunatic and a traitor. She made her remark about the irrelevancy of body bags right before her son issued his ultimatum to Saddam. I don’t understand how the context is supposed to make her look better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-has-decided-to-end-medical-treatment-update-rip/812458.md?page=4)