Presidential Biographies | Bush Administration - The Bush Administration Legacy

The Bush Administration Legacy

George Bush stepped down from office in a very different world from that in which he had been elected. The Cold War was over and the prosperity of the Reagan years was gone. Americans had come to feel that Bush, a competent manager, had been too reactive in a time when the nation needed a creative, forward-looking leader.

Bush succeeded one of the most immensely popular presidents in American history, and for a time it seemed that Bush would surpass Ronald Reagan's public standing. Bush, however, also inherited the economic problems caused by Reagan's reign, and even as Bush's popularity soared to almost 90 percent during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the nation had entered a prolonged and deepening recession. As the 1992 election loomed and the recession settled in, Bush's foreign policy achievements came to be overwhelmed by his failure to address the faltering economy. By the spring of 1992...