1. )  I've always thought that the first Bush's willingness to raise taxes was as heroic as his "read my lips" statement was foolish. He helped put an end to a deficit so that when the 1990's computer economy boom took off America under a Democrat, Bill Clinton, actually got rid of a terrible, menacing deficit. Later Republicans dangerously took this remarkable economy to mean that deficits weren't that big a deal.

2. ) Unlike the Son, the Father had a sophisticated understanding of the Middle East. When he went to war in Iraq he had an indisputable pretext. He pulled together a genuine coalition including the middle eastern neighbors of Iraq. Finally he did not push the war any farther than practicable even though he urged Shiites to their own slaughter when he left Saddam Hussein in place.

Among other things he also kept a fairly tight ring on Israel whereas his Son ultimately gave carte blanch to Ariel Sharon to do whatever he felt he had to . Sharon was the same man who swaggered next into the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem resulting in the Second Intifada and perhaps ultimately the election of Hamas once honest contested elections were finally held. 

3.)  The joke about George HW Bush when he was running for president was that he had the best resume of any candidate. He had been among other things a Congressman the Director of the CIA and the Ambassador to the United Nations. If anyone had an appreciation for the value of taking the higher ground it was the Father. This quality is sadly lacking in the son whose Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld relished ridiculing our allies who disagreed with us. 

4.)  To me this is most ironic. In many ways Bush seniors greatest claim to fame was setting aside our fears of repeating the quagmire that was Vietnam. After three years in Iraq when very little promise remains other than what the Pentagon has now taken to calling "the Long War," and military recruiting has fallen on hard times its hard to see the US being willing to commit its troops anywhere any time soon no matter how necessary new problems might be.

5.)  President 36 was Lyndon Johnson who attempted to fight an extremely expensive war in Vietnam at the same time he drove up spending on his much maligned "war on poverty." This resulted in "stagflation." No growth and inflation which made everything terribly expensive especially for people who didn't have unions to drive up their wages.

6.)  President 40 Ronald Reagan didn't always ignore the deficit. He determined that a deficit might make sense if he drove it up in an attempt to strangle the economy of our enemy of 50 years the Soviet Union. Time has proven his gamble to have been a good one. Fortunately, the 1990's saw a computer revolution which allowed the economy to rebound from the deficit. Now the Bush Administration is refusing to pay for the war he opted to pursue but because of short term politics he is going to have it paid off by the children of the next generation so that he can keep up his popularity with a busy economy while he is President. Reagan, before he drove up the deficit, once gave a good little speech in which he told Americans that their debt if measured in one dollar bills stacked one on top of the other were measured they would reach the moon and beyond.   
        Because of our war in Iraq we face a new fifty year war the consequences so far not only threaten the economy but the very constitution that defines what this nation is.

7.)  If we win quickly. We did but because we didn't make plans for anything after the war and because Bush's administration was not willing to raise taxes to pay for the recovery we are spending even more money to put together a nation which sadly we might actually have been able to cement back together had we not done things on the cheap.

8.)  This prediction wasn't mine alone but it has certainly come true. Had we confined our activities to Afghanistan where the real 9/11 mastermind hid we could have dealt a death blow by capturing or killing him. We sent the bulk of our army to Iraq instead so that bin Ladin could be a cheerleader while we decided to ask corrupt locals to go after bin Ladin. 

9.)  This is perhaps the strangest observation and the most forlorn prediction. We were told that the Iraq war would be paid for with Iraq's vast oil wealth. But three years later Iraq is producing no more oil for the world market than it did just before the war. So George Bush didn't end up striking any more oil than he did when he became a Texas oilman. However, his Texas buddies have gotten vast new contracts to manage the Iraq war thus vindicating the practice of taking the son of a president under their wings back in the 1980's.