Do they let people in prison use Twitter?

Upon hearing of Bush's passing, I think a
decent number of us pictured Dana Carvey.

So I never spent much time thinking about George H. W. Bush. Like, I was a kid when he was President and I watched the news and everything, but I didn't like, have strong opinions about him. It takes years of observation and disappointment to cultivate cynicism in our leaders. It was a different, less vitriolic and Fox News-y time, and the sexual misconduct allegations were decades away so he was just the President.

Could we...could we just pay Martin
Sheen to be the President as Bartlet?

I'm not bringing this up because I think he was like a great President or something, I'm mentioning it because I was reading this article about how the note he left for Bill Clinton during the transition has been making the rounds online. Presidents apparently leave notes to their successors in the desk drawer, I think there was even a West Wing episode about it. I'm not sure how long this has been a thing, but H.W.'s seems to be the oldest a lazy internet search will come up with, and since I'm not getting paid or anything, let's assume it is.

And-huh...you know, speaking of fictional Presidents, is it me, or did George H.W. Bush look like someone you cast as the fictional President? I mean, here, let's compare:

This is actual President Bush, before we
had to clarify which one he meant.

Here's Michael Douglas as the President
in The American President.

Kevin Kline in Dave...

...and the President from the NES game Bad Dudes.

I don't mean this as a reflection on him as a President necessarily, but goddamn, he was...generic-looking. Of course this probably is just a hazard of having two hundred years of almost exclusively middle-aged, white male Presidents...

"Yeah, but what are you going to do about it?
Elect a black guy? Or a woman? Fat chance!"

-Republicans 

up 'till 2012

Pictured: the moment Arsenio Hall
called the '92 election. 

In fact, I suppose a lot of our problems can be traced to two centuries of middle-aged white guys. Wait, what were we talking about? Oh, right, the letter. Whatever we may think of Bush the First, or may not think of him as the case may be, the letter is kind of touching. Here's this guy, this one-term President who kind of got his ass handed to him in the election thanks to a shitty economy and the fact that his opponent could play the sax, and he's writing-like by hand-writing a letter wishing his successor well.

Anyway, here's the letter. You'll note that Bush doesn't even call him sucker or complain about immigrants costing him the popular vote:

Yes, presidents do face unfair criticism
sometimes. Other times they pardon a
bunch of officials who traded arms for
hostages and the critics have a point.

Dear Bill,

When I walked into this office just now I felt the same sense of wonder and respect that I felt four years ago. I know you feel that, too. I wish you great happiness here. I never felt the loneliness some Presidents have described. There will be tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair. I'm not a very good one to give advice; but just don't let the critics discourage you or push you off course. You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well.

Good luck,

George

Don't let the critics get you down? I wish your family well? Good luck? Did people really used to talk like this? Yes it turns out. There was evidently a time in American politics when elected officials showed or at least feigned respect for their colleagues on the other side.

The two would later become friends and do charity work
together. Clinton even gave Bush socks with his pictured on
them...which, is that weird? Like, that's a little weird, right?

P.s. Oh, and Bill if Nazis ever make a comeback,
whatever you do, denounce them immediately.
Only an idiot would embolden white nationalists
by not saying anything. I mean, fucking Nazis... 

Obama, George W, and Clinton all left kind of similar letters to their successors, in all of these cases members of the other party. Yet in every case they congratulated them and gave them their best wishes-something that in the last couple of years has become unfathomable. I just can't help imagining what kind of letter Trump is going to leave. I mean, assuming the handcuffs aren't too tight (yes, I'm knocking on wood). I don't think I'm being unfair when I suggest that his letter to his successor will be somewhat less gracious and eloquent than those of his predecessors.

In fact, I don't think I'm too far off-base when I suggest that his letter-or, let's be real here, his angry and weirdly mis-capitalized farewell tweet, will probably involve some bragging, some unsupported conspiracy theories about Crocked Hillary and some bullshit about how the media has it in for him.

Although I suppose Trump's successor should just feel
lucky if he doesn't leave them an upper decker.