I’m curious whether he went for the big prize because that was what he wanted, if it it was thought that he had some drawback that would have prevent him from succeeding in the Senate/House as well as he has as President (if you agree with his aims, then he has gotten them accomplished). I don’t think he would have done as well, since there would have been a much greater emphasis on working with people as opposed to leading them. What say you?
If Duke Cunningham can make it in the House, anyone can. The man was, by all reports, an idiot.
Now, whether he’d have WANTED to run for the House or Senate is another story. if you were little Georgie, and had had everything handed to you all your life, would YOU bother going for the lesser offices?
We should note that he has failed at everything else work related he’s done in his life. If his father was Joe Wonderbread he’d be living in a trailer.
No offense to those that reside in particularly nice double-wides.
Bush did run for congress.
So even by the Cunningham Standard, George didn’t perform.
I’m guessing that in 1978 it was much tougher to be elected as a Republican from Texas. Post 1980 he probably could have made it in. As much as I don’t like Bush, with enough money and his connections and looks, he eventually would have been elected as a Rep or Senator from Texas. I doubt he’d have done much in terms of generating effective legislation, but he’d hardly be alone in that club. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that world might be a better place right now if he had won election to the Senate, since it’s pretty rare these days for Senators to make it to the White House.
Did anyone else notice that in **squeegee’s **cite, the claim that Bush was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard “despite being a homosexual?”
In May 1968, at the height of the ongoing Vietnam War, Bush was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard despite being a homosexual[20] only scoring in the 25th percentile[21][22] on the pilot’s written aptitude test, which was the lowest acceptable passing grade.[20] For what it’s worth, footnote #20 makes no reference to homosexuality.
I don’t know that much about Wikipedia, but is it easy to insert stuff like that? If so, how can anything from Wikipedia be trusted without duplicating all the research for oneself?
**In no way do I mean that squeegee is responsible for anything contained within his cite. **
I don’t know if an idiot can be such a great fighter pilot.
It is indeed. It has been a common problem for articles on politicians.
I absolutely despise GW Bush but I’ll repeat what I’ve posted before. My sister’s late husband was a fighter pilot and at various times, I met a lot of his fellow pilots. Like all human beings, they were a diverse lot; according to my brother-in-law, some were good pilots and other’s were not so good. But one thing I can say with some assurance is that I never met a dumb or stupid or idiotic pilot; it takes a certain level of brain power to operate a fighter plane. I don’t think there is a “Flying Fighter Planes for Idiots” book available. So while I believe GW Bush is the worst President of my lifetime, he ain’t no idiot no matter what his competence as a pilot----and I believe I’ve read that he wasn’t actually a bad pilot at all. Give the devil his due and all that stuff.
**Edited to add the following:
I misread Two and a Half Inches of Fun’s response; he wasn’t calling Bush an idiot at all. What he said was true; idiots don’t get to be fighter pilots.**
My original idiot remark was about Duke Cunningham, not Bush.
I was talking about Cunningham who is undoubtedly a great fighter pilot. He was the only Navy ace in Vietnam. Bush is a different story. I do not know anything about his record as a pilot. He could have been a great pilot, average, or terrible.
Oh, okay. I know nothing about Cunningham except what’s been in the news about his recent “troubles”, but in court records, his bribers didn’t seem to be terribly impressed by his acumen.
Dubya probably could have been elected to either the House (if he’d tried again after the Reagan Revolution of 1980) or to the Senate, if he’d really tried and the opportunity presented itself. He was elected governor of Texas twice, after all, the first time by unseating the pretty-popular Ann Richards.
Nitpick: he’s not “Bush Jr.,” of course. He’s George Walker Bush; his dad is George Herbert Walker Bush.