'bye, George, And Thanks For Everything

THE SUNDAY AGE

Sunday January 17, 1993

Unemployment: When Bush came to power in 1988 it was 6.7 million. Now it's edging towards nine million.

Animal welfare: The first American leader to be censured by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for setting his springer spaniel, Millie, onto the squirrels on the White House Lawn. Last November, Bush flew to Texas for a weekend of slaughtering quails in the sagebrush. This also earned him the distinction of becoming the first president since Theodore Roosevelt to be photographed with a menagerie of dead little cuddly critters dangling from his belt.

Dow Jones index: George was good for the stockmarket, taking it from an average high of 2183 in 1988 to 3413 last year.

Popularity: He scored the biggest approval rating in the annals of presidential politics, 91 per cent at the end of the Gulf War. By election day he had turned it into a losing 38 per cent of the popular vote.

Family values: Despite having a conservative in the Oval Office, the rate of divorced persons per 1000 population jumped from 133 to 148 between '88 and '91.

National debt: In case you didn't hear it from Ross Perot, the annual federal budget deficit ballooned from $155.2 billion to $290.2 billion. Total national debt went from $2.6 trillion to $3.5 trillion by 1991.

Foreign relations: The only president to have kidnapped, tried and imprisoned the leader of one nation, Panama's Manuel Noriega, and thrown up on another, Japan's Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa.

Sending in the troops: Panama, December 1989, 25,000 troops; Iraq/Kuwait February 1991, 500,000 troops; Somalia December 1992, 30,000 troops.

Law and order: The number of people in prison shot up from 631,990 to 823,414 by the end of 1991. But it didn't make people any safer _ the national murder total went from 20,680 to 24,700 in the same period.

Just say no: Mr Bush used his presidential veto to block 46 pieces of legislation.

Open government: Bush will always hold the distinction of throwing open his bathroom cabinet to media scrutiny when he suffered an irregular heartbeat.

Drugs: Mr Bush admitted using the sleeping pill Halion. Linked in numerous court cases to irrational outbursts of violence, mayhem and murder, the prescription sedative appears to have done him no great harm.

Epitaph: ``Read my lips _ no new taxes."