George H. W. Bush (character)

George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. He previously served as Vice President from 1981 to 1989 under Ronald Reagan. Bush is also a former neighbor of the Simpson family on Evergreen Terrace and a former member of the World Council of the Sacred Order of the Stonecutters.

History
During his presidency, George H. W. Bush commanded a sting operation that resulted in the arrest of Congressman Bob Arnold for corruption and bribery. He was in line attending the birthday party of Mr. Burns, only to be told that he and Jimmy Carter were not invited as they were one-termers.

Bush was also a member of the World Council of the Sacred Order of the Stonecutters. When the order disbanded and re-formed as The Ancient Mystic Society of No Homers, Bush stayed on as a council member.

Bush and his wife, Barbara, later moved to Springfield because they wanted to live somewhere where people did not care about politics. They chose Springfield when they found out that it had the lowest voter turnout. Although Bush got along well with Ned Flanders, he considered Bart a nuisance (even though Barbara got along fine with him). Bart's annoyances resulted in the destruction of Bush's memoirs, and an enraged Bush gave Bart a spanking as punishment. Upon learning of the spanking, Homer attempted different pranks to get back at Bush, resulting in a fistfight in the sewer that ended up at street level in public view, in front of a visiting Mikhail Gorbachev, among others. George initially refused to apologize for spanking Bart because he didn't want to show weakness in front of the Russians. He did relent and apologize, but immediately afterwards he told Barbara that they were leaving town. Barbara, who got along quite well with Marge Simpson, apologized for having to leave. Bush's house was soon bought by Gerald Ford, who instantly connected with Homer over their clumsiness, and love of football, beer, and nachos.

Bush was also seen collecting an unemployment check when Marge was fired from Red Blazer Realty. Bush later helped build a house in Springfield along with fellow former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. In a scene reminiscent of The Three Stooges, Bush became angry when Carter accidentally knocked a piece of plywood into his face. He rammed his hammer's hooks up Carter's nostrils in retaliation and bonked Clinton on the head for laughing at him. Later, the three of them became entangled in some water pipes as they attempted to plumb the house. Bush ran the dull edge of a saw blade across the back of Clinton's neck, then flexed the saw blade and released it, snapping Clinton on the head.

Bush was one of the Presidents that, to save money, Springfield Elementary School would no longer teach. The others were Buchanan, Fillmore, Pierce and Bush.

A picture of him was seen in a book that Superintendent Chalmers showed Bart, before Bart developed an interest in Theodore Roosevelt.

An animatronic of George H. W. Bush was seen in the Hall of Vice Presidents at Kissimmee St. Nick Theme Park and Resort.

He is also one of the many people on "Ned's List of Laudable Lefties".

Behind the Laughter

 * Bush was the 41st President of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993, so in real life he was actually President during the first few seasons of The Simpsons, including when "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" originally aired.
 * Prior to voicing George H. W. Bush, Harry Shearer impersonated his voice when voicing the role of Herman.

"Family Values" speech
At one point during his presidency, Bush made a speech about family values and how the American family ought to be "more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons." In response, before the first rerun of "Stark Raving Dad", the show made a clip of the Simpsons watching Bush's speech on television. When Bush delivered the "more like the Waltons" line, Bart said, "Hey, we're like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the depression, too."