Atlantic Council Senior Adviser Harlan Ullman writes for United Press International on the impact other vice presidential candidates could have had on either George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush’s presidencies:
President George H.W. Bush’s latest book will hit the shelves Tuesday. The book has already reopened old wounds over September 11th and the second Iraq war. Known as 41 to differentiate himself from son George W. Bush, America’s 43rd president, the father had unkind things to say about 43’s vice president, Richard B. Cheney, and secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld. And 41 rebuked 43 for the “Axis of Evil” speech linking Iraq with North Korea as enemies of the West.
But suppose either 41 or 43 had chosen other vice presidential running mates. How different the world might have been. In early 1992, George H.W. Bush seemed electorally invincible. After the 100-hour destruction and eviction of Saddam Hussein’s army from Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Bush’s popularity rose to 90%. The Soviet Union had imploded. Bush’s economic plans were gaining traction. As Ronald Reagan promised, this was truly “morning in America.”