I
thought that I would add on an introduction explaining the reintroduction of
the section of this blog’s political posts which is more of a potpourri section.
I wasn’t going to do that right away, but I thought that I would since I wanted
to address the death of the 41st president of the United States and
tell you about him in the best way that I hope that I’m doing.
Let’s
start with some facts about him. He is the most recent one term president and
most recent president to have lost reelection. He was president when I was
born. He helped start a tradition of leaving letters for his successor, even if
his predecessor technically did it first. He is one of four people to go
directly from the vice-presidency to the presidency via direct election. He is
the most recent president who faced no impeachment attempts against him. There
might be other facts besides that that I can’t remember right now.
Something
that people aren’t lying or overblown about when they are talking about George
is how he might have been the most qualified person who was elected president.
(Whether or not he was the most experienced person to ever run for president is
a bit debated.) He served in the military at the youngest age possible, being
one of the youngest pilots ever in the navy. He was then a representative in
Congress, an ambassador to the United Nations, a chairman of the Republican
National Committee, and Director of the CIA.
After
becoming vice-president, he was careful not to set a precedent by avoiding to
land at the office the way a president would. He was the first acting president
for 8 hours on 7-13-1985. He seemingly made it seem that vice-presidential
debates mean absolutely nothing in politics after his poor performance in one
in 1984 did little but make himself feel displeased in the campaign. He was the
first person since Hoover to succeed his own party via direct election.
A
remarkable feat happened during his term. The collapse of Communism, quite a
good thing, had happened. Whether it just happened under his term or because of
others before him, it was quite a good thing to happen to the world, outside of
the few remaining countries that still have it in the end. Another good thing
that happened was him helping to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act.
While
president, he was able to put two different people on the Supreme Court. The
first was a man named David Souter. This nomination was not want George
actually wanted in the end as David wound up being more liberal leaning than
George was looking for. David has since left the court during the Obama
administration and is still alive as of this post.
The
other person he put on the court was Clarence Thomas, only the second black
justice on the court who was replacing the first black justice on the court.
His was a contentious fight and left him with 48 negative votes, the most
negative votes ever, a record later tied by the newest justice on the court.
Clarence is now the longest serving of all of the justices still on the court.
There
were some controversies with his time as president and elsewhere in life. The
way I see it, there were three main issues that had happened with him over the
course of his time on this planet. One of them was that he nominated a man to
the Supreme Court who was accused of sexual harassment. That person still got
through onto the court, but it might have been a bad precedent to set.
When
he was a lame duck, he pardoned people relating to the Iran-Contra Affair and
thus became investigated for it himself. He was also accused of sexual
harassment himself later in life, although this might have been due to
misunderstandings, old man problems, or him simply wanting to put his arms
around someone, but forgetting that you can’t do that when you are in a
wheelchair due to their lack of reach to places arms normally could reach.
Still,
I would say that George was a pretty good person and a good leader too. He
might have been the most recent Republican president to be a good president
when he was in office. I do not think that he had many failures, other than
what I just mentioned about. I will miss him and hope that he rests in peace. I
leave you with this quote from him that people need to keep in mind today if
they want to be regarded well in this world.
“I’m
a conservative, but I’m not a nut about it.”
(Information
gathered from Wikipedia and The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents by William A.
Degregorio.)
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