David i dont consider myself a journalist. Nobody else would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer, even though i have a day job. How do you define leadership . What is it that makes somebody tick . David id like to start by acknowledging the presence of mrs. Bush. Thank you very much for being here. [applause] mr. Bush actually, i was supposed to do that. David sorry. [laughter] david i want to ask you about your parents. How are they doing . Mr. Bush i hate these tough questions. [laughter] thank you for asking. Told dad today that i was going to be on stage with bill, and you were the moderator. David what did he say . Mr. Bush he was surprised. [laughter] david okay. Surprised you could not do anybody better . [laughter] oprah wasnt available. Mr. Bush they are doing well, thank you very much. I really fortunate to be the only president with both parents alive after the presidency. Everyday is a blessing to have your mom and dad alive. And they are doing well. 93 and years old. 92 thank you for asking. I will tell them you asked. David how is hillary doing . Mr. Clinton good. If you knew our grandkids, you would know she is good. She did really well. She has been working on her book. We spend every available hour with our grandchildren. My grandson just turned a year old on fathers day. Which means every seven years, his father will celebrate fathers day on his sons birthday, which is kind of nice. And my almost threeyearold granddaughter sang happy birthday to him at his party. Mr. Bush can your granddaughter sing happy birthday in mandarin . [laughter] mr. Bush mine can. Mr. Clinton no, but she can sing in spanish. [laughter] [applause] david you both have grandchildren. What do your grandchildren call you . Mr. Bush i am called jefe. [laughter] david what do your grandchildren call you . Mr. Clinton i am more humble, i am called pop pop. [laughter] mr. Clinton you are the one that told me that once you become a grandparent, you are immediately at the bottom of the family totem pole. Youre the least important person in the family. David it is true. Mr. Clinton we qualify. David we will talk about your presidencies. You are now both former president s. What is the difference between being a former president and president . One day you have the nuclear codes. You can send Nuclear Bombs off, everybody is working for you. And the next day when you leave office, you have no power. What was the transition like . [laughter] mr. Clinton nobody plays a song when you walk in the room anymore. [laughter] mr. Clinton i was lost for the first three weeks after i left office. I would keep waiting for the music, you know. [laughter] mr. Clinton actually, it is wonderful. Very rarely in 17 years have i even given a thought to i wish i were there, i could do this, or i miss this. I think you have to be grateful for the time you have and realize you should focus on today and the future. And i think it is both liberating and also it concentrates the memory. You dont know how many years you have left, but you feel that the country has given you something priceless and you owe something back. And so, each in our own way, we have tried to figure that out. I have found it a really rewarding part of my life. I have loved it. Mr. Bush i woke up in crawford the day after the presidency expecting someone to bring me the coffee. [laughter] mr. Bush laura didnt bring the coffee. [laughter] i think the thing that startled me was the sense of having no responsibility. In other words, during the presidency you kind of become accustomed to the responsibility you have. First it is pretty grave, and then slowly but surely it becomes a natural part of your life. Then you wake up the next day and suddenly you have no responsibility. That was probably the most stunning thing for me. David when you are both president , you have someone on the opposite side of the Political Party typically saying it is a terrible idea. It is hard to get things done in washington. Maybe harder than it has ever been now, but hard when you were there. When you are a former president , do you find it is easier to get things done . Mr. Bush yes. It depends on what you are trying to do. Mr. Clinton i think it depends. First of all, you have to realize what you dont have and what you do. It is really true that i love the job and i loved all the responsibility. It is amazing how much of every day is taken up by things you have to do as president and by the incoming fire. When he was, for example running, i watched all his debates with al gore carefully and nobody said, what are you guys going to do if al qaeda blows up the World Trade Center . You see this in a lot of different ways. If you dont deal with the incoming fire, it will undermine your ability to do anything else. If all you deal with is the incoming fire, you cant keep the promises you made when you were running. So it is a lot of trouble. Now when you get out, you change all that power, all that clutter for whatever influence you have, and whatever your experience and contacts will permit you to do, and you have to decide what to do. Everybody makes different decisions. President carter was building habitat houses. That is what he decided he wanted to do. By doing that he helped habitat to grow in one of the biggest Home Building operations in the world. We all have to make these decisions. David former president is mr. Bush i dont think it is that easy, frankly, to get things done. For example, one of the great accomplishments in my postpresidency was the building of this building and the installation of programs that we think makes a difference. But it was hard work to get there. There was not just an appropriations bill. [laughter] david well, not easy. Today, when former president s get together, at funerals unfortunately, and sometimes when libraries open, it is not common that you get together. What is it like in the back room . What do you actually say to each other when the former president s are getting together . Do you tell secrets that you never tell anyone else . [laughter] mr. Bush generally we say, when is this Program Going to start and when is it going to end . [laughter] mr. Clinton hell say to me, give shorter answers. [laughter] mr. Clinton no, it is unusual with us because when i left office, i told him i said, if i can ever help you, then i will do it. If i cant in good conscience, i wont, but i will never embarrass you in public. And you know, hillary was a , senator. I said i may have to make some comment that disagrees with a policy of yours, but i will always do it respectfully and i want you to succeed. And i tried to be as good as my word. And then he gave me one of the great gifts of my life, the chance to work with his father after the tsunami in south asia and after katrina. We had a heck of a time doing it. We did a lot of good. That brought all three of us closer. David you ran against president bush 41. He called you names, you called him names. How did you come together . Mr. Clinton he deserves a lot of credit because if we had not asked us to do this the tsunami work together, i am not sure the relationship whatever flowered the way it did. Mr. Bush i think it starts with being bill clinton being a person that refused to lord his victory over dad. In other words, he was humble, which is very important in dealing with other people. David you ran against president bush 41. It was a bitter campaign. He was defeated for reelection. How did you manage later to develop a close relationship . Wasnt that very difficult or awkward at times . You could run against each other. He called you names, you called him names. How did you come together . Mr. Clinton i think it helped that we had some contact before. I represented the democratic governors when he decided to embrace these National Education goals and asked governors to help write them. And we started working together. And then i tried never to take a cheap shot in the governors association. If we disagreed, we found things we could do together. And i think the other thing is, like i said he deserves a lot of , credit because if he hadnt asked us to do this tsunami work together, i am not sure the relationship would have ever flowered the way it did. We just like being together. It is like anything else. Sometimes you click with people, sometimes you dont. I always admired him. I think i completely supported what he did in the aftermath of the collapse of the soviet union, supporting german reunification, supporting the european union, supporting the efforts he made and i made, as you see today with mixed results , to integrate russia into the family of democracy. We just started working together on this tsunami thing. It is easy to forget because it was a long time ago. They lost 300,000 people in a matter of minutes and several countries. Then president bush said, americas got to do our part. Most people couldnt find those little countries on the map. But they were part of the Global Community that he was willing to take our fair share of the responsibility for. David that was your relationship with president bush 41, but how did you become close . Mr. Bush i have a different take on it. [laughter] what i think is one of the most unique and important relationships in u. S. Political history. I think it starts with bill clinton being a person who refused to lord his victory over dad. In other words he was humble in victory, which is important in dealing with other people. And i think dad was willing to rise above the political contest. In other words, it starts with the individuals character. Both men in my judgment displayed strong character. Therefore, their friendship was able to be formed. Why do i have a friendship with him . Because he is called a brother with a different mother. He hangs out. [laughter] he hangs out in maine more than i do. [laughter] david when you campaigned, you were campaigning against some of the things the Clinton Administration had done when you were running in 2000. Mr. Bush yeah, probably. [laughter] mr. Bush we are both baby boomers. We are both southern governors. We had a lot in common. He got along with people in his legislature, i got along with mine. We had friends in common. And so there was a natural ability to respect and like each other. Therefore, if you disagree with someone, it does not mean you dont like him. Mr. Clinton also i recognized that he was 44 days older than me. [laughter] so i called him on his birthday and said, im calling you on bended knee because this begins my 44 days of respect for my elders. [laughter] mr. Bush when i was president , i would call bill, and he was very helpful. He knew a lot about a variety of issues, particularly International Affairs that i was interested in. I knew i could count on him for good advice. And he was gracious in receiving my calls. David president clinton, all of us have gone to school recognize there is someone that is a class president and everyone thinks this person can be president of the United States none of them have , actually made it, except you. Most people burn out, and you managed to pull this off. What do you think the qualities were that were instilled by your mother . Mr. Clinton i also lost two elections along the way which keeps you humble. First of all i think that stuff is overrated. I think i got elected because i basically we were the last generation that was born without a television. I was 10 years old before we got a television. I grew up in a conversational culture where people actually talked and listened to each other. I dont know how these people make it today. The average president talks eight seconds on television. Snapchat is 10 seconds. Twitter is 140 characters. We my life revolved around meals. My father died in a car wreck before i was born, so i spent a lot of time with my grandparents and their generation. And my great uncle was the smartest guy in our family. He presided over conversations and he involved the kids in them. And he taught me that everyone has got the story, and most people cant tell it, and thats sad. And that people are inherently interesting if they can get out of their own way. So what i was taught to listen and to look. I think that is what it is. I always thought i would have a better life if i could help somebody else have a better life, too. And i got lucky. I dont care what anybody says. All these people say they are in born in a log cabin that they built themselves are full of bull. [laughter] david i think i was partially responsible for you being elected president because i worked in the white house for president carter. And you may remember toward the end of your term as governor, we put a lot of aerial boat people uriel note boat people in arkansas, which made it impossible for you to get reelected. I thought by not being reelected you were driven so much harder to work to be president later on. Mr. Clinton i really appreciate it. I dont think i ever adequately thanked you for doing that. [laughter] david at the time you werent that happy about it. President bush, i think i am responsible for your being elected. I worked in the carter white house. I got inflation to 19 . [laughter] that enabled president reagan to get elected, then your father to the vice president. Maybe helping you become president. Did you ever think about that . Mr. Bush i think clinton had a bigger role to play than you did because i dont think i ever would have run for governor had he not defeated dad. It would have been difficult for me to have beaten ann richards in 1994 because i wouldve spent my time defending george h. W. Bush. Who had been in the last two years of his presidency. By losing, it enabled brother jeb and me to run on our own for governor in our respective states. I was sitting in the oval office at the desk, taking it all in, and in walks my dad and i said, welcome, mr. President. And he said, thank you mr. President. David what was it like when your mother walked in the oval office for the first time and you are president of the United States . Mr. Clinton she started laughing out loud. [laughter] mr. Clinton it was so ridiculous that it could ever happen. David both of you ran for congress and both lost. You have that in common. But after you lost the first time, you were trying to beat an incumbent congressman and you lost. Did you say, i am out of politics . What made you say mr. Clinton no. I got a break, in a way. In the house the democrats did , well in 1974 because president nixon resigned. But i ran against a congressman who was one of his fathers best friends. He had an 85 approval rating, and 99 name recognition. Mr. Bush that is called suicide. [laughter] mr. Clinton i was zero and he beat me 5148. About three points. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. We wound up being friends too. But this district we ran in had the highest amount of gasoline use per registered vehicle in america because it was all on hilly roads. And you had to do stuff people dont do anymore. Your Television Ads did not amount to anything if you did not do retail campaigning. And i learned 75 of what i know about politics in that first race. David at the time hillary came down to help you with the campaign. Did you think she was going to stay down in arkansas and marry you . Arkansas was not considered, in her world, the center of the universe exactly. [laughter] mr. Clinton i did not, no. I had it one step at a time. I already asked her twice to marry me and she said no both times. Smart girl. [laughter] so the third time, i told her, just come down here. They liked her so much at the law school they offered her a job teaching. She didnt have anything else to do. Her other job was she was working with the house judiciary committee. So when that whole thing was over, she just took the job and it worked out pretty well. David when you got married, you said to your wife, or she said to you, i dont want to make any speeches. You implied you were not going to get into politics . Mr. Bush not true. [laughter] mr. Bush we got married in november, and the next year i campaigned for congress. But i said she would never have to give a political speech. In and she did. [laughter] david and she was good at it. When you lost, you ran the house seat, and you lost. Mr. Bush 1978. David did you say, im out of politics . Mr. Bush for a while. But it turns out, like bill said, it was one of the best things that happened to me. As the guy that beat me said, if i hadnt beat bush, he would still be on the agricultural committee. [laughter] david when you decided to run for governor against incumbent ann richards, your mother and father said you have no chance of winning. Mr. Bush the father did not say that, the mother did. [laughter] david what did you say when you won . Mr. Bush i said, are you going to come to the inauguration . [laughter] you know my mother. You never pop off to her like that. Otherwise, shell floor you. [laughter] david when both of you became president , your father had been president , you had not had a father who had been president , but you had been around government. What was the Biggest Surprise . The first day you are in the oval office, you learn the nuclear codes, all the crises we may be getting into. What was the Biggest Surprise he you found, and when did it you that you were the president of the United States . The most powerful man in the world. When did it first hit you the first day, first week the first , month . Mr. Clinton harry truman said what surprised me, you spend so much time trying to talk people to do things you should not have had to ask them to do in the first place. What surprised me, one of his dads best digs on me was that i was governor of a small state. That was actually true. You are so far removed from the American People that its hard for them to see you as a threedimensional person. And i had to learn even as governor of texas, as big as texas is, i think you had a much more personal relationship with the people. Bob bullock is a governor, a good friend of mine, he loved george bush. And i think he helped him be a better governor. We were just used to being people and dealing with people. It really surprised me how easily i could be turned into a two dimensional cartoon instead of a threedimensional human being. You have to discipline yourself about what to talk about, how to talk about it. And you have to keep remembering there are all these layers between you and people that didnt used to be there. And that surprised me. I thought i was a pretty good communicator. I thought i could i just fell on my face four or five times. Until i figured out how to do it. David you became president as a young age. You were 46 years old. If you have been president at 46 56 or do you think it would 66, have been different, or did you think you would have had less energy at your age . Mr. Clinton i think i would have been better in some ways if i had been older. But i think i would have been not as good in some ways. Sometimes you get a bunch done because you are too dumb to know you cant do it. [laughter] you show up and you keep trying to do it and something happens. David your father was president , so you saw what he did right and what he might have done wrong. Did you take any lessons from that . Or were you trying to separate yourself from your father . Mr. Bush i learned a lot from watching him. I wasnt interested in separation from him, and he wasnt interested either. We have got a great fatherson relationship. Yeah, i learned a lot from watching him. My most startling moment came right after the inaugural parade. I decided i was going to go into the oval office to see what it felt like. And unbeknownst to me, andy card had called upstairs to the residency and asked dad to come in. I was sitting in the oval office at the desk, taking it all in and in walks my dad. And i said, welcome mr. President , and he said thank you, mr. President. David that must have been something. What was it like when your mother walked in the oval office for the first time and you were president of the United States . Mr. Clinton she started laughing out loud. [laughter] mr. Clinton it was so ridiculous, the idea of it, that it could have ever happened. But on the other hand, when i started running, she was the only person that thought i had a good chance to win. Nobody else did. Hillary and chelsea were undecided at the beginning. [laughter] mr. Clinton but it made me feel good because my mother had a pretty tough life. She was widowed three times. She had a pretty tough life. And she got up at 5 00 every morning and got herself ready and was at work by 7 00 and did everything she could to take care of me. So, i was proud to be able to show it to her. And she was ill then, but she lived another year. Just a little more than another year about the time. Excuse me, a little less than a year. She died the next june 6 i mean, january 6. David whats it like to live in the white house . Mr. Bush you want to know what my mother said . David i guess so. [laughter] i can imagine. Mr. Bush get your feet off the jeffersonian table. [laughter] david but your mother was proud, of course. Think about this. There was only one woman who had a son become president of the United States whose father was president of the United States. Abigail adams, but i dont think she was alive when John Quincy Adams became president. Your mother was the only person who saw her husband be president and her son. Pretty unusual. Mr. Bush it is. David if you could run for president of the United States or former president of the United States, what would you recommend . Mr. Clinton you have to live a long time as a former president to have as many impacts as you have as president. Mr. Bush the decisions you make have got a monumental effect on a lot of people. It was exciting to be in that kind of environment. Got you outnumbered. The dinosaurs extinction. Dont listen to them. Not appropriate. Now im mashing these potatoes with my stick of butter. Why dont you sit over here