As the years pass, we edit and compress our memories of presidents and other national figures until only a few salient impressions endure. Most of what we once knew recedes into our cerebral hard disk. That may be especially true for one-term presidents, often remembered more for what turned them out of office than for what got them there.
Would this apply to the one-term president who died Friday, George H.W. Bush? His name was attached to some of the nation’s top positions for more than two decades even before his namesake son won the White House twice.
This weekend’s outpouring of nostalgia, affection and grief for “George the First” surely makes the case for his significance.
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