The apple didn't fall far from the tree

George H. W. Bush (Bush 1) Quotes:

"It's no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another." Brilliant. A forerunner to W, for sure.

"You cannot be President of the United States if you don't have faith. Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial in the Civil War and all that stuff." What history class was this guy in?

"I'm conservative, but I'm not a nut about it." Now, there's commitment.

"I'll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most." ...No doubt.

"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them. ...Wha?

"I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of [CIA] sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors." ...Unlike Junior and Darth Cheney.

But at least some times he showed intelligence--unlike Junior:

"I'm not what you call your basic intellectual." ...Extra credit for honesty here.

But sometimes, occasionally, anyway, he showed some intelligence, as in these quotes Junior should have followed:

"I can tell you this: If I'm ever in a position to call the shots, I'm not going to rush to send somebody else's kids into a war."

Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different — and perhaps barren — outcome.

If only.