Im susan eisenhower, and its a terrific pleasure to be here today to have a conversation with dr. Lynne cheney and karl rove. This is a real honor for me and a real treat to be able to have kind of an intimate conversation about the executive power in the United States, to actually wield power alongside of the president of the United States and also to talk about what its like to be behind the scenes. Let me just say very quickly of my cough, im not sick. [laughter] i dont know, you came back from wuhan with that cough. [laughter] feeling all right . Youre a little warm, little warm. Lynne, you want to change . I think the two women ought to be here i had to clean out somebodys fireplace flue the other day and inhailed some fire smoke. In any case, dont be alarmed if i find myself coughing. Its really a thrill to talk to you again. And as i had some experience as a child with what its like to be in the company of people who wielding enormous power, to observe both the pressures of the job along with the loneliness, you might say, of power. And, obviously, it comes with privilege but also great sacrifice. Lynne, you have said over time that you have carved out a remarkable career for yourself. But this proximity to power probably started for you when your husband, dick cheney, became chief of staff to gerald ford. And i didnt want see him for i didnt see him for two years. Is that right . Thats just sort of the way it is. But i was so interested in what he was doing that he learned to come home at night and tell me what hed done all day. And so thats a really fascinating inside look. You and i were joking before, if youre the president of the United States, youre called potus. If you are the first lady of the United States, youre called flotus, first lady of the United States. If youre the wife of the Vice President , youre called slotus. [laughter] and my family had an enormously good time with that. I had to finally shut it off. Well, have you been tempted to turn it into a twitter handle . [laughter] there you go. I dont think that i really feel comfortable with twitter. Im always afraid that ill send something that i dont know that i sent, and thats not a good idea. Good point. So, karl, youve been in an enormously powerful position in the white house, and i have to ask both of you, if you dont mind, i think were badly in need of humor today. I dont know if all of you agree, but id like to know what the funniest and the strangest thing ever happened to you while you were in the white house arena. Me . Yes, you. [laughter] well, there were a lot of them, but i stole a car. I think that was the highlight. Oh, my. Now, was that funny or oh, it was very funny. All right. It was enormously funny, because i had this colleague, al hubbard, head of the National Economic council. Very successful bids guy. Originally from jackson, tennessee, so he spoke with this southern accent and sort of sounded like a slowminded guy from tennessee. Hiding the fact that he had a harvard mba and he a had started at a are young age with a private Equity Partnership in indianapolis that was wildly successful. He basically, their strategy was buy the last buggy with manufacturers in america, consolidate em and make a lot of money, and they did. And he stepped aside from that to come in and serve as the National Economic council director. And if he had a really nice bmw, really nice. [laughter] uhoh. And, you know, if youre at the white house, youre spending a lot of time in meetings. And i had a meeting across the way from the west wing in the old executive the office building, and it ended early, and i had a few extra minutes before my next appointment. And i was walking down the navy stairs and across whats called old executive drive. Its this street that is between the west wing and the ike, the eyesenning hour executive office building. And right by the entrance to the basement of the west wing, hubbard had parked his car. I noticed hed left his keys anytime. [laughter] so i got in it and moved it up west executive drive. Remember, to park on executive drive, you have to be a senior aide to the president , you go through three checkpoints, your car is swept for bombs, and you pass over some kind of device em bedded in the concrete, maybe it xrays you, i dont know. So this is very secure. So i took the car and drove it up west executive drive about 75 yards. And after 9 11 they had the sniffer trucks, had four trucks, they looked like ice cream trucks that were parentinged at the parked at the four corner of the complex, and they sampled the air for chemical and biological agents. And it was just large enough that when i parked the car behind it, you couldnt see it from the west executive entrance. I wasnt there, but i have eyewitnesses who said at the end of the day hubbard came out, took a look around, couldnt see his car, took out his flip phone, hit the speed dial to his assistant and said, dave, my car, my car is gone theyve stolen my car [laughter] he found it. So the next morning, of course, at the senior staff meeting with sort of a tone of, an edgy tone but nonetheless good natured, he accused me of stealing his car. Big mistake. [laughter] so i kept stealing his car. [laughter] and id work it out so that, you know, like one time i worked it out with the secret service is so that i parked it by their loading dock. Mr. Hubbard, your car is blocking the loading dock, and and were expecting a load of surface to air missiles. This went on for a great deal of time. Every time i would steal his car, he would accuse me of it at the senior staff meeting. But after the first time, i would always get somebody else to be with me. Hed say, you stole my car, id say, al, i saw somebody else get out of your car. Which was true. Is long story short, final week that im at the white house, were flying back from reno, nevada, where the president s spoken to the american legion, and we finallied had television then on air force one. And im watching television and im sort of mystified because theres a camera at the corner of the white house in whats called pebble beach. And when you see the north portico of the white house, thats being shot from pebble beach. It is looking down executive drive, and its looking at a car that has messages spelled out in postit notes on all the windows forming letters and words, and somebody had wrapped the car in industrial cellophane [laughter] giant sheets of industrial cellophane and decorate it with stuffed animals. [laughter] and its my car. [laughter] and cnn is saying we, someone we dont know whats going on on west executive drive, but someones car, and whos car is that . Weve been told on Good Authority that its Senior Adviser karl roves car, we dont know whats going on. I call hubbard, i say, hubbard, fantastic. Youve paid me back. I got the white house photographer on west exxec, i want to get a picture of you, me and your handiwork. First of all he doesnt say, hey, i did it. I said, look, this is the great thing youve ever i mean, and nobodys ever come close to this, so weve got to have a photograph. We send word through the white house, and people come spilling out of the ike and out of the west wing. Its about 6 00 in the evening, can and people start applauding hub and the photographsing having difficulty with his camera. Hubbards starting to get into it, hes sort of a modest guy, but hes like, yes, i did this, isnt it fabulous. Up walked two Uniformed Division officers of the secret service and put anymore handcuffs him in handcuffs. [laughter] and then the white house photographer takes the picture. Its one of my favorite photographs, and it keeps hubbard out that i keep it in my bedroom. [laughter] theres a picture of hubbard being put in handcuffs, am i really in trouble . Look, i was the mayor of the west wing, these were my people. So theyre putting anymore handcuffs, and im like, oh, buddy, you got me, but i just got you back. [laughter] good to know that theres a sense of humor amid all of the pressure. You have to. Yeah. So, you know, the white house and the Vice President s house, these are very formal places. Theres a reason why theres a downstairs official area and then the living quarters upstairs, because there really is a difference between this public life and this private life. What about you, lynne . Im sure you have many funny stories, but have you had strange ones as well from that period . Well, this is funny and strange. Funny and strange. We spent a lot of time at camp david, as karl knows, after 9 11. It was the undisclosed location. And we had our kids, you know, and its the same as karls story in the sense that, you know, you find joy in life even though youre in a dreadful time. We also had our dog, a big labrador, yellow lab named dave. Dave was the love of our life. And so we took him everywhere at camp david. Dogs are allowed everywhere at camp david. Except one day, okay, karl help me, is it laurel where we eat . Yeah. Okay. Laurel lodge. Dick walked inside and he had dave with him. And theres alma powell sitting here, and barney, who is the president s dog and a kind of mean little scotty. Is that fair . Mean little bastard. [laughter] used to bite me all of the time. [laughter] the president never had barney. Well, barney was a troublesome dog. But dave thought he was probably a squirrel because he was kind of little, and so he set out after him. And barney, being chased by dave, is going around and around this table at high speed while alma powell was going like this. Expect president walks and the president walks in. And he said what is going on here . And dick knowing this probably wasnt a good thing, to have dave chasing barney, pulled a doughnut off the breakfast tray, said dave, come x. Dave always came for food. Well, he got the doughnut, he got dave out of there, and we went back to our lodging. Ten minutes maybe a fellow knocks on the door, hes in full dress uniform. Hes the Camp Commander and he said, sir to dick he said, sir, dave is not allowed in laurel again. And, obviously, hed been sent by the president to tell us not to bring dave to laurel again. The president was really nice about dave but not about dave chasing barney. That was not yeah, yeah. Well, you know, pents play an enormous role. During my grandparents tenure in the white house, they brought heidi, a wipe rauner, and she had an stent on one of mamies rugs and got sent into exile in gettysburg. [laughter] ive also got to say one unknown fact about the white house, its the Burial Ground of our pet parakeet who was on the third floor named pete. Pete died, and so we were allowed to give the bird a dignified burial in the rose garden, and my siblings and i put up a little, you know, pete, rest in peace, but they took it down to mow the lawn. Oh. I know. So finish. Youve got to wonder, roosevelt, whos the first guy who had the west wing, also had a gigantic collection of animals. You have to wonder how many of them we know that several of them died during their days in the white house. You have to wonder about the burial locations for all the president s of their favorite pets. Because, you know, most of them of course im going to have it buried at the white house. Exactly. We a ought to have an archaeologist go over the grounds. I think so. The problem is you cant go back and visit their web sites. Well, except dave is buried at the Vice President s residence, and is were sure we know where the site is. And if we ever are invited back, we will go visit dear dave. Does he have a little headstone . No. We thought that was too showily. Okay. Im feeling better. He has one in our hearts. [laughter] you know, apropos of that, one of the interesting things to me was how important the Vice President s residence and the white house are to the political and policy business of the government. Right. And both the cheneys expect bushes were i and the bushes were enormously good at entertaining a lot of people both formally and, more importantly, inform aally. Informally. You know, its a little bit problematic for staff because if youre going to have 20 members of congress down, youve got to have some staff there too to sort of jolly them up. They have lists of things they want done. But it was amazing to me particularly at the holidays how eclectic, you know, youd have the party for the press, and youd have the party for this. But it was really interesting, the Vice President s residence and the president s when youd have, thered be holiday parties that were clearly geared towards, you know, their official business and their friends. And it really was important how many to a time, you know, youd have some hardnosed democrat whod be down at the white house smoking a cigar at the truman balcony, and their spouse would be jumping up and could be on the down on the lincoln bed. Ing after we left the white house in the years since, i cannot tell you how many democratic members of congress have said to me if youd are told me id have spent more time at the white house with your guy than my guy but they did. The president and Vice President both knew from having been at the white House Democratic majorities in the legislature, how important it was to do what you could informally to reduce some of that tension. Well, i think thats an extremely important point. And i know that its virtually given that we all recognize that were living in tremendously turbulent and uncertain times. I think we have to all recognize that. But i must say that the 2000s were also very turk lent and uncertain turbulent and uncertain s. And, of course, what immediately comes to mind is 9 11. This extraordinary moment in American History when so much changed for this country. I have to ask you, lynneverything, what was that like lynne to first of all, you were in a high ranking position during those years at the National Endowment for the humanities. And i wonder what that was like to also be supporting your husband and to be, you know, a symbol of this country during that tumultuous time. You are such a nice interviewer, and im going to make a public confession that i have never made before. I was getting my hair done. [laughter] and the nice fella who was doing my hair came out and he said do you know a plane just flew into the World Trade Center . Ooh, what a weird accident. And then a few minutes later he came back and said theres a second one. So, of course, the secret service hustled me off into a car. And you could see smoke from the car. It was the pentagon burning. But you dont know what it is. You just see it coming up from over the buildings. Unexplicably to this day, they took me to the white house, which everyone else had just evacuated. [laughter] but it was, you know, such a memorable day being down, its called the president ial Emergency Operations center, peoc. To be there if watching the country be run, shutting down all the planes in the United States and through, you know [inaudible] norman oh, thank you. Form whos a good friend to this day. Thank you, karl. Condi rice was there. I dont think you ever you were off with the president , i think. Yeah. But it was the same experience karl had only more serious. On the way to peoc, there are a bunch of cabinets along the way, and you watched the secret Service Opening the cabinets and grabbing very large guns and passing them on on. Its like a movie. That was stunning to me. And then when the day was over, i did take notes that day which, you know, were subpoenaed or whatever. But it was okay with me. I didnt write anything secret. And moreover, i was shaking so much, i didnt even know i was, theyre barely legible. But at the end of the day, we flew in a helicopter to camp david. And when you lifted off the south lawn, you could see the pen gone, you could see the fire burning. And i couldnt end help but i couldnt help but think of the burning of washington in madisons time. Washington then, of course, was just a small village, and this was of much greater consequence, but it certainly is a day lodged in memory. What was it like after that . Because you go to an undisclosed location, but think about that for a moment. Yeah. Just think about that for one moment, the decision made that the threat is is so unknown and so dangerous that the president and the Vice President of the United States cannot be in the same place unless absolutely essential, that the Vice President must be taken to an undisclosed location that in the event the president is dead, we have continuity of government. That was the nature of that moment. Incredible. There were worries afterwards about airborne poisons that might get us, anthrax, ricin was talked about thats when the sniffer trucks show up. And then they make their way around the white house staff. They walk in and say they have a little device, and it says a punch a button and it makes a noise. If you hear this noise, its a chemical attack. Then they handed me a big plastic bag. This is your mop suit, take it out and put on the helmet and the mop suit. If you hear this sound, its a biological attack x what you need to do is take this need, stab yourself in the heart and then put yourself in the mop suit. And i said, sure, like thats going to happen. [laughter] and my assistant, susan ralston, is standing there listening to this lecture, and i said, okay, wheres her outfit. And they said we dont, we have a limited number of suits, itll be several days before we have more. And i told, handed mine to susan and said, okay, dont tell me when you stab yourself in the heart. [laughter] i dont quite understand that. Could you help us with that . What . Stabbing ones self in the heart . Its adrenaline. You stab yourself . You can run then. Yeah. Or maybe it was chemical you stab yourself and biological you have to hope you dont people who are coughing from their visit to wuhan. [laughter] well, i cant help but ask what is it like to be in an undisclosed location . I mean, was it massively isolating . You know, you can be around people all the time and still be very isolated. I was writing. You were writing. And it was actually perfect. I sometimes describe my life as one long interruption. But, you know, this is a Peaceful Place with you could by. Our grandkids were there, our children were there. So, you know, that part of it was not onerous. But knowing the state of the country was. And i was going to say a minuting ago, i think i have the distinct of being on sip row longer than any other human being because it was thought to protect you from anthrax and other things that might be in the air. 90 days. When i tell physicians that, they say, oh, my goodness. [laughter] i think i could still use it though to effect. What do you remember about that day, karl . Everything. Everything . Its 8 48 a. M. , im standing 15 feet away from the president outside of Booker Elementary School in sarasota, florida, and the phone rings, and its my assistant, susan. And she says a plane has flown into the World Trade Center, we dont know if its jet or prop, commercial or private. And i said, what else do you have. She said, thats it. I said call me back if you have more. And i walked over and told the president of the United States, who was shaking hands with parents if teachers and administrators. About two minutes or three minutes later, condi rice, National Security adviser, called with exactly the same sketchy information. And we walked into the Elementary School, walked down a long hallway, walked into a classroom which was designated the staff hold x. Wherever the president travels a day or so before he arrives, the air force shows up with two large cabinets, plastic cases, and take occupant a device, two quites that look devices that look like a cross between a typewriter and telephonings. They plug them into a wall outlet. You hit o, and youre talking to a guy under cheyenne mountain, colorado, and they can connect you like that with anybody in the world and secure conversation. To we walk in, and there are the stus, theres the president s doctor, physician and nurse carrying a little cooler full of the president s blood. The National SecurityAdvisers Office had a person on the travel team that day. The cia briefer was a young guy named mike morrell. Oh, yes. Who later becomes the director of the cia. And the president , almost immediately, leaves the room and goes into the adjoining room for a reading demonstration with third and fourth graders. Normally theres a Television Set, but for some reason there was no television, so i spent the opening moments of the war on terror running up and down the corridors of this Elementary School until i could find a classroom with a Television Set that was empty x. I went in, and it was on the rack. So the rug rats couldnt get up and play with it. I pull it out of the wall and ran down the corridor to the staff hold, rolled it in there, plugged it in, plugged in the power. But then i had to plug in the cable. And im rolling around on the floor in a suit in a kindergarten classroom and rolling and trying to make a connection, you know, plugging it in. And i remember the first there were three outlets and the first one, it made the connection and it went [inaudible] so i had to unscrew it, screw it in the second one. When it made a connect it went and a voice says what have we just seen, what have we just seen. Second plane fly into the World Trade Center. And chief of staff andy card at that moment decides he needs to go tell the president. And i remember that andy walked over to the door, literally the president is in the adjoining classroom, and i remember when he got to the door, he paused, and it seemed like an eternity. I bet it was like one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, but at the time i remember he paused, and i never understood it until a couple of years ago, we happened to be on a panel, he said he suddenly realized he needed to know exactly what he was going to say so that the president would not ask any questions. So he had to formulate what he was going to say. And you remember the photograph where he tells the president about the second plane flies into the World Trade Center and hes under attack. The president had to make a decision should he excuse himself and walk out. He thought the reading common straight was going to be demonstration was going to be a matter of seconds, maybe a minute or two at most from being concluded. So rather than standing up and excusing himself in the middle of it with 40 tv cameras and stuff, he decided that he would wait, but it actually took four or five minutes. Can you imagine sitting there waiting for this to end knowing that, you know . So he got up when it ended, quickly excused himself, came to the room. Ive known him a long, long time, but a different guy came walking through that door. There was a certain anxiety in the room, and he came in, and he was cold as ice and very calm and low tone of his voice, and he said were at war, give me the director of the fbi and the Vice President. And we jumped on the stus, we got mueller, robert mueller, the fbi director, but we couldnt get Vice President cheney because he was being moved. Secret Service Agents had burst into his west wing office and had told him they needed to move him to the bunker. But i had a weird day because when we, we were sitting this the president s sitting at a table meant for kindergarteners. All the adult furnitures gone from the room. So hes sitting at a little table thats about this far off the ground in one of those little plastic chairs writing what hes going to say to the country. And three of us, dan bart let, Ari Fleischer and i are there talking about what hes going to say. And the head of the secret service came in, little guy, not very tall, very slim, very soft spoken comes in and and says, mr. President , we need to get you to air force one and airborne as quickly as possible, because they were afraid that the president s whereabouts were known, and they were worried somebody was going to crash a plane into the Elementary School, and they wanted to get him the hell out of there. Normally id be in a car two or three behind the president s limo, stagecoach as it was code named, but for whatever reason that day as we were walking out the day he under the around, whistled at me and pointed to the backseat of the car. I spent virtually all of 9 11 with him. Side of the backseat. President picks it up. I can only hear one side of the conversation, but i know its bad when he says is rumsfeld alive, the strike on the pentagon. There were four police cars, i hadnt recognized they were there, maybe a foot and a half away from the car, and were going 85 miles an hour, and these guys are matching us. If you could roll down the window, it was there. And later in the day i said to eddie, what was that all about . I never had seen it before, he said we were worried about a car bomber, and we wanted it to go off 10 or 15 feet away from the president , give him a better chance of surviving the blast. And my first thought was what the hell was i doing in the backseat of that car. [laughter] but that was the day. I mean, the day was you know, we got on the plane, the president , we we lift off. When we lifted off, literally the plane began to roll when the door is not even shut. We got on the plane and normally, you know, they normally it takes like 10 or 15 minutes to get everybody in their seat, power it up. We got on the plane and im buckled in across from the president , people were pouring on the door, the last person comes pouring up the stairs about five seconds later i realize the stairs are disa appearing because the plane is beginning to move. They need to get the stairs out of there before the wing clips the stairs, and the door is open, and somebodys screaming to somebody that the door is open, and an airman comes running up the hallway, leans out over 30 feet of air, pulls the door shut and arms it, and we are like running. We get to the end of the runway, and colonel tillman flips around the 747 like it is a piper cub, stomps on the brakes, powers up the engines, just theyre blowing, and lets go. And we go rolling down there. Ive done Aircraft Carrier landings and takeoffs, that was the closest thing ive seen to an aircraft takeoff. I mean, we rolled down that thing and he gets airborne and stands us on the tail. And im looking up at the president , yeah, im okay, hows your day going . And hes looking down at me like this. But am d were heading up the later that day we flew to nebra. They were trying to keep him away from washington. We were looking at a map, giant map two or three stories tall in this bunker underneath the nebraska prairies as aircraft launched from a new jersey airfield to intercept one of the seven aircraft inbound across the atlantic with which theyd not been able to make communications. And were watching to see if these fighters can make contact with the pilot. The aircraft is inbound to philadelphia, and if they cant, their orders are splash it before it gets to the new jersey coast. That was 9 11. Well, boy. I know, and my if office is in the White House Security perimeter on lafayette square, translator translating this into multiple languagings. And there was a russian who got, was starting to get up as we were taking airborne, and thank god i speak some russian because i told him to sit down right now. Id like to ask you, it is an extraordinary thing to be associated with such decision making, to be an intimate if part of this power circle, to wield power yourself in the publics mind and also by virtue of your, you know, relationship to the Vice President of the United States and, therefore, the president of the United States. What to you do to keep yourself doing . Because, you know, were living in tough times now from a perspective of criticizing other americans, but i think it was pretty tough back then too, wasnt it . Yes. But like karl, you leave with so many stories of the unflap about of people who were leading us and, well, the other end of your story, we were in the peoc, and i cant tell uniforms very well apart. But the fellow was in white, so i think that mean ifs ifs he was navy . Or the coast guard, but okay. Probably not the coast guard. Sort of look like a navy uniform and coast guard officer, so finish. Well, whoever. He was tall, distinguished looking man, gray hair. And he came over and whispered in dicks ear, this is the other end of what youre hearing, and dick said, take it out. It was the airplane. You know, they had come to dick and said what should we do, weve got this airplane incoming, its full of people. We have reports that they may hit the capitol, they may hit the white house. You know, it was a time when we were personally in danger, but i dont remember anybody being shaken by that. However, the navy captain went away with take it out, and then he came back. You know, he wanted to be sure that he heard right. And so again dick said, take it out. And i remember that so clearly because i understood what it meant. And as karls saying, my goodness, you have a military aircraft shooting down a passenger airliner, its i dont think its a close ethical decision because if that airliner had gone down in the white house or this is flight 93 that were talking about. Oh, im sorry, karl, thats exactly right. But instead they went down in shanksville because the people were very brave. Yeah. Not to dwell too much on that, but as we came back into washington that night, the president finally at the end of the briefing in nebraska said im coming back to washington. And they said, oh, mr. President , please dont come, we dont know. And he said, no, im coming back. The nation needs to hear me from the to oval office, not from some bunker underneath the nebraska prayerly and, besides, im going to sleep in my own bed tonight. We were occupied most of the way working on the speech that he was going to give to the country. But about 20 minutes or so outside, 30 minutes outside of washington he said im going to take a quick power nap and went up front, and we were the speech was pretty well put to bed. And two of us are standing outside the private office, hes now in the bedroom which is forward, and were just sort of talking. And up flies an f16 aircraft that takes up station at the left wing tip of air force one, so close you could make out his face. And we were sort of excited, because it was pretty amazing, this he is. And my colleague said, get your camera, take a picture, take a picture because i had a little camera that id been taking pictures during the day. I went into the cabin to get it out of my briefcase, and there was one ott on our right wing tip, two f16 fighters. Wed entered the cordon around washington that exists even before 9 11. So were sitting there excitedly talking about how cool it is, and suenly both of us realized what this was. This was not a ceremonial escort. These guys were the last line of defense. If something came up out of the ground or, you know, somewhere else in space after air force one, their job was to put their aircraft between that threat and air force one. So we come into land at andrews, and we come in like this, and we had these two f16 fighters on our wing tip as were literally and, again, im strapped in looking at the president like this, and at the last moment, colonel tillman pancakes the 747 onto the runway s and as he does, these two f16 fighters simultaneously turn on their afterburners to push ahead of the craft, ahead of air force one. And so they boom and like this, 50 feet off the ground. A couple years later i was walking through the airport in atlanta, and this trim guy about mid i to late 30s comes up to me and says are you karl rove, and i said, yeah, i am. He said, we were together on 9 11. And i said remind me where. He said i was on your left wing tip as you came oh, boy. Isnt that a story . Yes. Air force reservist, a stockbroker doing his active duty and on the flight line, the launch line on 9 11, and this was his job. Wow. I mean, these are such yeah. Some very, very moving stories. [applause] since were here at the Rancho Mirage writers festival, i cant help myself. You have both been at the epicenter of events during the 2000s, a very dynamic period and in ponce to 9 11, of course response to 9 11, of course, youve both also written history. So im wondering how your own personal experiences during this time informs the way you look at historic figures. Does it or does it not at all in. My own personal experience was i was writing a book on education, and i was about halfway through when george bush asked dick to be Vice President. And the president to be, his main cause was education. So i couldnt finish that book. You know, just finish i couldnt go out there with a set of opinions that, you know, might conflict, might not conflict. Couldnt finish the book. So i started writing Childrens Books. I thought this is the least harmful thing i can do. [laughter] you know, whos going to get mad about a patriotic Childrens Book . And so i wrote, i think, six of them while dick was Vice President. Its one of the best things ive ever done. It was that long ago and people are still giving a is for abigail in america baby presents. I mean, its my go to baby present. So it affected my life in quite an important way, and i dont think karl ever knew that. Im not going to answer your question directly, but im going to tell a dick cheney story. Okay. So its june of 2000, and bush is thinking about who his Vice President ial running mate should be, and were looking at nine people. And the head of the process is Richard Cheney of dallas, texas. And during the course of all of this, bush becomes convinced that cheney ought to be the guy. And he knows im against it. So he calls me up, in iowa, and he calls me up and says, okay, im coming home tonight, as you know, and i want you to be at the Governors Mansion tomorrow at 10 00, and i want you to make the case why i shouldnt go with dick cheney. So i show up at the Governors Mansion at 0bg, and the Governors Mansion in texas was bill in 1854 when there were no man chi understood ca man chi indians, so its not very being. Im sitting on one side of the room and governor bush is sitting on the other side of the room about 4 feet away, and were in comfortable chairs, and he say, okay, tell me why we shouldnt go with cheney. And i said, well, you know, number one, wyoming. Three electoral votes. Havent lost it since 1964, not worried about it. We need to go with somebody from a battleground state. Number two, cheney had his first heart attack at the age of 34 or so. I used to know the details of it, and i said i think hes had three since, hes working on perfecting the heart attack, people are going to say hes not going to last. [laughter] number three, he was a conservative congressman from a conservative state 18 years ago, and every one of his stupid votes is going to be brought up, like the vote one of three members of congress to vote to against the resolution calling on the appar tide regime of south africa to move Nelson Mandela from the island prison where theres no doctor to mainland president where there is a doctor. Hes one of three guys to vote against it. Number four, weve worked very hard to identify you as your own man, so lets get the guy who was the secretary of defense at the time of war for your father, thats going to erase that. People are concerned about you being an oilman, what the hell in lets double down, get the guy whos running halliburton, lets do that, you know . 2th amendment problem. Anyway, bush not a monologue guy, nobodys going to ever bring up that vote. Youre ridiculous. Etc. , it so this goes on for about 30, 35 minutes. And at the end of it, i literally realize i cant unbutton my jacket because i have sweat through my shirt. [laughter] he says got anything else . I said, no, thats it, sir. Turns to the guy next to him, dick, got any questions for karl . Cheney had been listening [laughter] as were walking out of the room he says to me, i agree with some of what you had to say. That night bush call me and he says really good today. He was back on the road, he literally came was there for six or seven hours, met with the Vice President , then left again. Calls me that night about 0bg, and he says 10 00 and he says really good today, really good. You outlined ten serious political problems. And i hadnt thought of some of them, and it was really good. So figure out what youre going to do about em because im going with cheney. [laughter] he said your job politics, so these are all political problems. Figure out what youre going to do about them. He said thats not my job. My job is to figure out who would be the best partner to me in the oval office, excuse me, in the oval office. If something terrible happened to me, whom would the country have immediate confidence in, and thats dick. And im going with him. Dont tell anybody ive made the decision or ill tell you [laughter] but figure out what youre going to do, in and and in a couple of days, tell me how we can prepare for each one of these eventualities. And it was a testament to her husband. He could not of been a Better College and more importantly a better mentor. Im terribly sorry were out of time. I hope you will agree with me this is a terrific opportunity. [applause] it was fun. Are look at amarillo continues as author amy von lintel shares the story of georgia okeeffes time in the texas panhandle and how the artist works serve as a gateway to writing about the American West and world war i. Of the women that we give credit to as being part of the canon or set of great artists, shes always in it. If it teach a survey she will not be left out. Shes one of the highest grossing Women Artists of all time. Shes really interesting to study for history of american artists, for history of women artist