AMERICAN PRESIDENTS DURING MY LIFETIME
George Herbert Walker Bush 1989-1993
He was Reagan’s Vice-President and was
elected when Reagan’s term was completed. America still could not stomach
another Democrat after Jimmy Carter. Foreign policy would drive his presidency
with military involvement in Panama and the Persian Gulf. Iraq, under Saddam
Hussein, had invaded oil rich Kuwait. After negotiations failed to get Iraq out
of Kuwait, Congress authorized the use of military force. I remember that day
well. Jan 17, 1991, was the beginning of the Persian Gulf War/Operation Desert
Storm and possibly our involvement over there for years to come. As I walked in
the door after school, the television news was full of the air attacks. It was
the first time since Vietnam that I was seeing war on TV. This time it was much
different with the missiles being fired in rapid succession lighting up the
night sky like huge green flares. This went on for 4 weeks, until ground troops
went in and pushed Hussein back to Bagdad, restoring control of Kuwait to their
government. Bush’s approval rating skyrocketed. However, he reneged on his
campaign promise of “no new taxes” which cost him his re-election.
William
Jefferson Clinton 1993-2001
I will begin with the positives about this
President because after that I have very little respect for him. Bill Clinton
was a master negotiator. He had the ability to reach across the aisle and come
to terms, to give and to take. Democracy is built on this example of
negotiating under the law of the Constitution. BUT, this President was
despicable much like Nixon, lying under oath. Bill had an affair with an intern
in the Oval Office. He was a womanizer and he used his power to have his way
with Monica Lewinski. She was naïve and believed that he cared about her. When
the infamous blue dress turned up with his semen on it, he had to come clean of
his indecent behavior INSIDE the White House. He was impeached from office for
lying to the American public. This began the moral decay of our society, as
young people now felt that oral sex wasn’t sex, and sex out of wedlock became
the norm. The Clintons did not go away, however, because his wife Hillary was
elected as a senator from New York and later took the stage as Obama’s
Secretary of State. Their Clinton Foundation, raising millions in the name of
charity, would later be viewed as suspicious. Their books and speaking
engagements made them wealthy. She later ran for President against Trump, but
America had had enough of the Clintons.
George
Walker Bush 2001-2008
