It was entirely logical that George H.W. Bush, who has died at the age of ??, would become president of the US, the 41st in its history. Born into privilege, the son of a pillar of Wall Street who had gone on to serve in the Senate, he enjoyed the patronage of the most powerful Republicans in the land across two generations, acquiring in the process a curriculum vitae in government more complete than any who have sought the highest office. As 1989 dawned, with an easy election victory behind him, Ronald Reagan’s vice-president appeared ready for the White House

Far less foreseeable, until deep into the 1992 campaign, was that he would be unceremoniously booted out after one term, and less than two years after he had directed such a great American-led military victory in the Gulf war that heavyweight Democrats all balked at daring to challenge him.

Whatever the precise, and many, reasons for his defeat, George Bush was perceived as a man strangely out of touch not with the world but with his own country; and he left the White House with a record of achievement – foreign policy excepted – scant by the standards even of one-term presidents.