Description:

Bush George H. W.


George H.W. Bush ANS, with Air Force Doodle, Mentioning Republican Predecessor Richard Nixon and Anticipating Bush's 1992 Reelection Bid

 

1p ANS with doodle displayed within a handsome double-sided frame. Featuring a 15+ word note and airplane doodle initialed "G.B." Expected light paper folds, else near fine. With a marbleized cream mat with beveled edges. Not examined out of the walnut-finished frame. The sight size is 5.125" x 8.125" while the overall frame size is 10.625" x 13.875" x .875".

 

Sitting 41st U.S. President George H.W. Bush (born 1924)  wrote the following note on the back of a "Secure Presidential Phone Calls" memo sheet dated July 9, 1990: "Research / in 1972 how many / times did R.N. / actually campaign / outside White House? / G.B." Below, Bush drew a crudely delineated sketch of a pilot in an "AF-1" fighter plane poised to race down an illuminated runway.

 

This note revealed George H.W. Bush's intention to run for presidential reelection in 1992. Bush tasked either himself, or a White House staffer, with researching 36th U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign. It's interesting that Bush chose Nixon as a point of comparison, and not his more immediate predecessor and one-time running mate 40th U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Nixon's reelection had taken place some 20 years earlier and had ended rather badly with Nixon's impeachment and disgrace.

 

Like Nixon, Bush initially had very high first-term presidential approval ratings. Unlike Nixon, the incumbent Bush faced off against 2 other strong presidential contenders, Democrat Bill Clinton and Independent Ross Perot. While Nixon's political albatross the Vietnam War did not doom his reelection chances, Bush's--in the form of a poor economy and high unemployment--did.

 

The delightful doodle at bottom demonstrates Bush's lifelong love of the military. During World War II, Bush had served as a Navy fighter pilot, completing 58 combat missions in the Pacific Theater. He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross after he was forced to abandon his burning plane near the Japanese island of Chichi Jima. The drawing suggests that Bush was captivated by fighter pilots and high-tech planes some 50 years later.

 

Provenance: Gifted by Mary Matalin (born 1953), longtime Republican Party consultant, to original owner ca. 1990



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