Bush-41-3: the Lips were Read

The main problem with Bush's presidency was the 'vision thing' as they used to say. He really didn't have one.

As a result, while Bush gave us Clarence Thomas he also gave us David Souter.

Bush, the patrician, the Eastern Establishment Republican, didn't have a vision, he didn't have a plan, he didn't really have ideas. He was a manager, as problems came up, he would manage them. And manage them well he did.

However lack of vision meant Bush 41 had no real concrete philosophy. Which is why the Democrats hoodwinked him with the 1990 budget deal. His great campaign slogan was 'Read my lips, no new taxes.' Bush didn't manage a problem he betrayed the GOP. When Bush agreed to a tax increase in 1990, even this 16 year old understood he was watching a political cataclysm. 

The GOP was enraged and Pat Buchanan, then a Reagan man, launched a wildfire insurgent campaign in the primaries. The Dems laughed all the way to the White House in 1992.