If the presidency were measured by résumé alone, George Herbert Walker Bush, who died Friday night at the age of 94, was one of the most prepared men to ever hold the job. Before his election in 1988, he had been vice president for eight years, ambassador to the U.N., envoy to China, and director of the CIA. He’d paid his political dues too, serving two terms in Congress, running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate and then taking on the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee at President Nixon’s request in the midst of the Watergate scandal. He managed to remain loyal to Nixon publicly even as he privately counseled him to resign.