Ex-President George H.W. Bush hospitalized

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, 90, was hospitalized in Houston, late on Tuesday after experiencing shortness of breath, a spokesman for the 41st commander-in-chief said in a statement.

Bush's latest health scare came two years after he was struck by illness during the 2012 holiday season. He spent seven weeks in a Houston hospital for bronchitis and related ailments before his discharge in mid-January of 2013.

On Tuesday evening, the former president "was taken by ambulance to the Houston Methodist Hospital as a precaution after experiencing a shortness of breath," according to his spokesman, Jim McGrath.

Bush "will be held for observation, again as a precaution," McGrath said in a statement.

The former president, a Republican, marked his 90th birthday this year by taking a parachute jump in Kennebunkport, Maine. His eldest son, former President George W. Bush, just published a best-selling book about his father, titled "41 — A Portrait of My Father."  

President Barack Obama wished his predecessor well in a statement issued by White House spokesman Eric Schultz from Hawaii, where Obama was vacationing with his family.

The elder Bush served as vice president for eight years during Ronald Reagan's two terms as president before being elected president himself, defeating former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee, in 1988.

Bush took office in 1989 and lost his 1992 re-election bid to Democrat Bill Clinton.

Bush also served as a congressman, a U.N. ambassador, U.S. envoy to China and CIA director before becoming Reagan's running mate in 1980.

Reuters