George h.w. bush speech 1991

Including time out for jeers, it took George W. Bush less than 10 minutes to deliver quite possibly the most honest speech he's ever given, and certainly the most compelling since entering the White House.

In talking to the Yale graduates Monday, Bush had nothing to say about his political views nor his presidential policies.

Instead, he spoke about his life while he was at Yale in the late s and what he has learned about life since then.

Bush told the students: "When I left here, I didn't have much in the way of a life plan. I knew some people who thought they did. But it turned out that we were all in for ups and downs, most of them unexpected.

George bush autobiography George W. Bush born was born in the city of New Haven, Connecticut as the eldest of six children. He grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. Bush would later be part owner and managing partner of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers , become governor of Texas , and eventually become the 43rd president of the United States. When Bush was just two years old, his father moved the family from New Haven to the town of Odessa in West Texas to begin a career in the oil industry.

Life takes its own turns, makes its own demands, writes its own story. And along the way, we start to realize we are not the author."

Yale had no role in the life story Bush told as he sought political office. He was a son of the oil country. He wore cowboy boots and dropped his "g's" and hung out with the likes of Kinky Friedman, who dubbed his band "the Texas Jewboys."

But now he reminded the freshly minted graduates that he was born a few blocks from the campus while his father, a World War II vet, completed his own Yale passage.

Some people who know Bush well say his exemplary manners come from his mother, Barbara, after whom a daughter, now at Yale, is named.

Another influence on the young Bush was said to be his Yale grandfather, Prescott, who lived in what is still Connecticut's poshest precinct, commuted to Wall Street and became a U.S. senator.

In terms of breeding, if not in intellect, there's a presidential-level politician who comes to mind whom Bush resembles. It's neither his laconic father, fused to his in-box while at the White House, nor the also young but more sardonic John Kennedy.

Rather, it's Adlai Stevenson, the one-time governor of Illinois and two-time Democratic presidential candidate.

In , on the Saturday night before the election, Stevenson came to speak at Yale.

George bush biography yale speech About Search. President Levin, thank you very much. Dean Brodhead; fellows of the Yale Corporation; fellow Yale parents, families, and graduates. It's a special privilege to receive this honorary degree. I was proud 33 years ago to receive my first Yale degree; I'm even prouder that, in your eyes, I've earned this one.

The students staged a mini-riot as their way of showing their preference for the Republican incumbent, Dwight Eisenhower.

Some reporters traveling with Stevenson, who widely adored him and loathed Ike, believed the fierce outburst by the sons of privilege might kindle a late political firestorm and even tip the result. But television had yet to become a factor, and the big East Coast newspapers had gone to bed.

This happened on the same elite campus where, 44 years later, Bush finished a lame third on Election Day, running well behind both Al Gore and Ralph Nader.

At their commencement, quite a few Yalies, as well as their professors, let it be known they had little use for Bush.

The students chose Hillary Rodham Clinton as their Class Day speaker. They cheered her boilerplate liberal punch list, one that doubtless would have made Stevenson proud.

But Bush had no conservative agenda to share. He spoke instead, with wit, of his shortcomings as a student and of the rootless life he led before pulling himself together.

George bush biography yale speech today In New Haven, Connecticut, President Kennedy focuses on three economic issues: the size and distribution of government, public fiscal policy, and public confidence in business and America. President Griswold, members of the faculty, graduates and their families, ladies and gentlemen: Let me begin by expressing my appreciation for the very deep honor that you have conferred upon me. As General de Gaulle occasionally acknowledges America to be the daughter of Europe, so I am pleased to come to Yale, the daughter of Harvard. It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds, a Harvard education and a Yale degree. I am particularly glad to become a Yale man because as I think about my troubles, I find that a lot of them have come from other Yale men.

At long last, he felt free to tell it like it is.

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Andrew J. Glass is a Washington-based columnist for Cox Newspapers. His e-mail address is aglass