wives which included my wife. and we were reminiscing about that visit tonight. my wife sue was recalling how down to earth and earthy, both, barbara bush was during that visit and how completely captivating she was and how she captured everyone that she came in contact with. and i think that is emblematic of many other comments. and by the way, anderson, compliments to a wonderful tribute to her by cnn. it was such an important time, president bush was only in office for one term but it was a really important time in american history. i mean, there was so much, the collapse of the soviet union, the fall of the berlin wall had taken place in 1989. obviously the first gulf war. i mean, it was a very different time, but a monumental time. it was exactly that. and certainly from my personal
service. they treated them so well. and i think it says a lot when you hear about the ushers and the staff and how much they loved them. but one of the things that the bushes did for the secret service was on holidays, on christmas, on new year s, they would always stay home and stay in, so that as many secret service agents as possible could be with their family. or when they went to the vatican to see the pope, the president would say, who s roman catholic, and he would always make sure that they were in to these visits. and that kind of courtesy and consideration speaks volumes. and i think it s the reason why you re seeing this kind of expression of condolences tonight. i just want to add one thing to what dana said about mrs. bush. she talked about the civility with jeb and how he was his mother s son. i would also say that her other son, george w. bush, used to love to say all the time, i have my daddy s eyes but my mother s
are. anderson, you know, i sort of think of barbara bush through the prism of her two sons who i covered, george w. bush in the white house and obviously more recently jeb bush on the campaign trail. and about the kind of men that they are, just as a mother of a son myself, i know what it takes. my son is young. they grew up to be president and governor, and one obviously ran unsuccessfully for president. it s the kind of people that they are. and they became those people because of barbara bush. as you ve been talking about with the other guests, she was the person at home raising all of those kids while her husband was off either as ambassador or a cia director or vice president and so on and so forth. and jeb bush in particular, anderson, i think, as i said most recently, he really is his mother s son. all of the descriptions that
she had to apologize. it was geraldine ferraro. she couldn t help saying, i don t know what the big deal is, calling someone a witch. we re going to take a quick break. much more ahead as we remember former first lady barbara bush. this from jean becker, chief of staff of the office of george h.w. bush. so many of you are asking how is 41. he s of course broken hard to lose his beloved barbara, his wife of 73 years. he was at her side when she left this good earth. it will not surprise all of you who know and love him that he is also being stoic and strong, he s determined to be there for his family as well. we ll be right back. as a control enthusiast, i m all-business when i travel. even when i travel. for leisure. so i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle - without starting any conversations-
in the iowa in the ames straw poll. lee atwater and rich bond who ran the campaign summoned them. mrs. bush says, when are you going back to iowa? sending the clear message, she was the bad cop sometimes and the enforcer. not just with the kids. with everybody, to protect him and his career. i loved that clip you just saw there. you also got to see what their relationship was like and how steady it was, how much they loved each other, what an example that was. kirstin, george bush the first man she ever kissed, she was 16 years old, married him under the age of 21, one of the few first ladies who married at that age. it was a different era. he was a senior at the phillips andover academy. you can see this incredible bond between them. one thing to remember about her is that she used to be sort of covered like this, oh, she s just this housewife, right? i don t think a lot of people in the beginning, before we got