(NSI News Source Info) Source: Mike Lupica, Daily News - January 5, 2009: At a time when just about everybody named Bush is frantically trying to rehabilitate the image, and legacy, of the outgoing commander in chief, we now get the most amazing pronouncement yet from the family: Former President George H.W. Bush feels he has another son warming up in the bullpen.
"I'd like to see [Jeb Bush] run," the old man said on television Sunday. "I'd like to see him be President one day." 
Former President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, together in 2006.
Now this was a father sounding like a father and acting like one, straight up. That is exactly what the old man - far and away the best of all the Bushes - was Sunday, whether he was talking about Jeb or the current Bush in the White House, the one who will leave office in a couple of weeks being viewed as one of the worst and weakest Presidents in history, as much of a bust-out case as the economy he leaves behind for Barack Obama.
That is why nobody, not even Bush 41, this quite honorable old man, a war hero who plans to jump out of an airplane this year to celebrate his 85th birthday, doesn't get to rewrite the story now. It is much too late in the game for that.
"It's been tough on his father and his mother," the former President said Sunday, talking about Bush 43 and all the criticism he's received.
Even the old man, who now looks like a giant as President compared with his kid, would have to admit it's been somewhat tougher on the country. But he was still out there punching away Sunday, a good soldier to the end, even suggesting that the media in general, and The New York Times in particular, have been "grossly unfair" in its coverage of his oldest son.
Again, he's too nice a man to get caught in the crossfire directed at Bush 43 on his way out the door, because none of this mess is his fault. And the old man is allowed to think of the Oval Office as the family business if he wants to. But blaming his son's problems on the media would make about as much sense as Bill Clinton blaming all of his problems on a zipper that worked.
Or Eliot Spitzer blaming his issues on the hotel.
One week it's Dick Cheney trying to edit the last eight years in America, almost line by line. Then it's Laura Bush, trying to be as good a wife as George H.W. Bush is a father. You half expect them to start buying time on television trying to still run George W. Bush for President as the rest of the country gets ready to kick him to the curb.
History, they all keep saying, will have a different view of the last eight years in America. Not without 3-D glasses it won't - or several stiff drinks.
Former President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, together in 2006.
Now this was a father sounding like a father and acting like one, straight up. That is exactly what the old man - far and away the best of all the Bushes - was Sunday, whether he was talking about Jeb or the current Bush in the White House, the one who will leave office in a couple of weeks being viewed as one of the worst and weakest Presidents in history, as much of a bust-out case as the economy he leaves behind for Barack Obama.
That is why nobody, not even Bush 41, this quite honorable old man, a war hero who plans to jump out of an airplane this year to celebrate his 85th birthday, doesn't get to rewrite the story now. It is much too late in the game for that.
"It's been tough on his father and his mother," the former President said Sunday, talking about Bush 43 and all the criticism he's received.
Even the old man, who now looks like a giant as President compared with his kid, would have to admit it's been somewhat tougher on the country. But he was still out there punching away Sunday, a good soldier to the end, even suggesting that the media in general, and The New York Times in particular, have been "grossly unfair" in its coverage of his oldest son.
Again, he's too nice a man to get caught in the crossfire directed at Bush 43 on his way out the door, because none of this mess is his fault. And the old man is allowed to think of the Oval Office as the family business if he wants to. But blaming his son's problems on the media would make about as much sense as Bill Clinton blaming all of his problems on a zipper that worked.
Or Eliot Spitzer blaming his issues on the hotel.
One week it's Dick Cheney trying to edit the last eight years in America, almost line by line. Then it's Laura Bush, trying to be as good a wife as George H.W. Bush is a father. You half expect them to start buying time on television trying to still run George W. Bush for President as the rest of the country gets ready to kick him to the curb.
History, they all keep saying, will have a different view of the last eight years in America. Not without 3-D glasses it won't - or several stiff drinks.
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