When considering the life and times of George Herbert Walker Bush, one is forced to enter into a well-guarded mansion that is steeped in so many accumulated layers of wealth, power and secrecy that just scratching the surface requires a pickaxe and dynamite. For here we are dealing with no ordinary politician, but rather the scion of a dynastic clan who had a profound hand in shaping America into the country it is today.
George H.W. Bush was not necessarily predestined for a life of politics in the same way that career politicians, like John F. Kennedy, for example, or Bill Clinton were. Conquering a chunk of the global monopoly board took priority in the Bush household; political power came - like an after-dinner mint - more as a complement to the wealth obtained, and perhaps as a way to acquire more.
George's father, Prescott Sheldon Bush, went on to become, among other things, the vice president of the investment bank A. Harriman & Co. At the age of 60, after making a respectable fortune, he tossed his hat into the political ring and was elected Senator from Connecticut.
Comment: See also: Bush and the JFK hit