heart, if not, in fact, the day of the dictator is over. bret: george bush as hard as test as president was giving the green light for operation desert storm. but he is credited with rescuing the tiny, oil-rich nation of kuwait from saddam hussein s million man army of iraq. the forge george herbert walker bush took his first step into the white house, he learned to walk in kennebunkport, maine. during to born june 12th, 1924, and the town of milton, massachusetts, to a family alrey deeply involved in public service, he was the second of five children to dorothy and senator prescott bush. with high school behind him, george was accepted at yale university, but put his education on hold. the start of the second world war beckoned him to serve his country instead. in 1942, george bush celebrated his 18th birthday by enlisting in the u.s. naval reserve. within a year, he was ensign
but not enough to keep them out of the limelight, throwing out the first pitch before a 2016 baseball game, and pregame ceremonies months later at the super bowl in his houston home town. reuniting with his former running mate and vice president dan quayle in july, and then catching a glimpse of the rare eclipse that crossed the country alongside his family in maine in august. one of bush s last public appearances was that his beloved wife, barbara, a part of his funeral, where he met with former presidents, first ladies, and the current first lady, melania trump. he recently returned to his vacation home town of kennebunkport, maine, joining fellow veterans with a pancake breakfast before he was hospitalized. this was the first time in decades that neither he nor his wife attended the annual memorial day parade. he wrote in a tweet, i am forever grateful not only to
white house. by 1979, he was ready to get back into the political ring. ladies and gentlemen, i am a candidate for president of the united states. [applause] bret: bush was seen as a moderate alternative to ronald reagan, but dropped out of the presidential campaign after poor primary performances. a short time later, he accepted reagan s offer to be his running mate. reagan won in a landslide. during his eight years as vice president, bush was credited with softening reagan s view of the soviet union and pressed hard on issues like deregulation and the war on drugs. international progression, bush became the republican party nominee in 1988 with senator dan quayle from indiana as his running mate. the republican team defeated massachusetts governor michael dukakis and texas senator lloyd benson. i, george herbert walker bush, do solemnly swear. bret: during his president,
motivation for bush 43. bret: i should point of that they are cleaning up for the national defense forum dinner here. so as you hear the glasses clanking behind me, that is the cleanup crew behind me for the reagan national defense forum, as they are preparing for tomorrow for you to speed when you get a little ambient noise they are a very busy night. chris, thank you very much for joining us. i want to bring in more folks with close ties to the president. we have dana perino, a former advisor to president george w. bush, and juan williams joining us now. juan, i want to start with you. we talked about the bipartisan appeal of bush 41, and he worked across the aisle, and he was willing to compromise to get things done. your thoughts on him tonight? juan: the emotion flows out of me because i was the
white house correspondent during the reagan years, and one of my jobs was to travel around the country with george w. bush, especially in the 84 cycle when president reagan was up for reelection. as you have heard, they weren t particularly close, but george h.w. bush was a great, great emissary for the reagan administration, because he had been head of the republican national committee. so he knew people all across the country in every state, he could tell me names of people in an unbelievable fashion. just incredible. and we would sit together, and i remember one thing he told me, shannon, was that i should write notes to people. he would write notes, five and ten notes a day out of habit, just to stay in touch with people. certainly with all the prominent republicans around the country, but he would write to friends and people, and everybody would