On paper, George Herbert Walker Bush looks like one of the biggest winners in American

history.

He served in World War II.

He becomes a war hero.

He comes home and makes a bunch of money in oil.

He wins a seat in the House of Representatives.

He becomes UN ambassador.

He becomes head of the Republican National Committee.

He becomes head of the CIA.

He serves two terms as vice president before winning the presidency for himself.

So why is it that so many people remember him as a big old loser?

I asked Ken Routin.

He hosts the political junkie podcast and covered George H.W. Bush for M.P.R.

He said to get to the loser thing, you have to start with his biggest win.

The fact that George Bush won in 1988 when he beat Massachusetts, Governor Michael DuCac

as I mean, that was pretty significant in the fact that it was in effect a third Reagan

term.

Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 and 1984 with George Bush as his vice president.

And with the last time a party won more than two in a row was in the 1930s and 1940s,

the Republicans were trying to accomplish what hadn't been done since Roosevelt and Truman

and of course hasn't been done since as well.

Three years into Bush's first term, he has unprecedented approval ratings.

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