ABSTRACT

Bush could have retired in Houston without any loss of pride or dignity. He had enough success from business and government to ensure prestige and comfort. His oldest son, George W., had settled in Midland, and had also gone into the oil and gas business. He was, at the same time, preparing to run for a seat from Texas’s nineteenth congressional district. 1 Young George was not seeking public office, he later explained, because the family had taught him that “you must be a politician to be successful.” He had acted more out of a sense of “passing on of tradition, passing on legacy, passing on responsibility. “It’s the inherited sense of service,” he added, and the realization that “you can’t win unless you run.” 2