If someone after the year 2016 asked, "Who had been President during the years before Barack Obama was President?" you could say "George Bush had been President." It's a context based sentence, though a rare one.
Paul D.
----- Original Message ----
From: Brad Johnston <
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[log in to unmask]Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 7:31:01 PM
Subject: Was Bush president?
Nancy: Imagine that next year, after a new president has been inaugurated, someone asks me, “Prior to inauguration day, who had been President?”
Brad: They would not ask you that. They would say, “Prior to inauguration day, who was President?”
Nancy: I would answer, “George Bush had been President.”
Brad: You would answer, “George Bush was President.”
The Rule: The past tense of "to be" is "was" (singular) or "were" (plural), not "had been".
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