obviously, talking about golf, baseball, president h.w. bush s prolific baseball career in college, george w. bush owns a baseball team. there was pride in sports. it meant a lot to them. did you ever get a sense when you were talking to him about these moments, throwing out the first pitch, flipping the coin of the super bowl, how much these things meant to him? it meant an awful lot to him. i remember talking to him at the final four in houston and he was a great friend and such a mentor and a confidant with jim nantz, the greatest broadcaster from cbs, and he wrote about him extensively in his book and they spent countless hours and days together and i believe he had come in part to some of these final fours because he wanted to spend some time with jim nantz. he was always agreeable and i remember john thompson, the
earth, she basically said, every day that you wake up and it s a choice. your choice and attitude and what you say, how you conduct yourself, and one of the things that he showed us in a post-presidency, really how to be a former president. he was a gracious winner and a gracious loser. he lived quite a long life after he finished the presidency. jimmy carter also. he really set a good example for bill clinton, for barack obama, and for his own son, george w. bush, because there is a lot of life and after you have had this job as the leader of the free world, the most powerful person on the planet, what are you going to do in those next years? and he chose to do lots of different things. he continued to do speaking but i think one of his great lasting legacies is at college station, texas a&m, where the bush library is, and where, to this day, people learn about his
looking at ronald reagan, of course, all eyes would go to reagan in terms of the charisma, the presence, the like, but you have to understand for him, it was public service to be ronald reagan s vice president, he saw, in that moment, that he was, in fact, lining up with someone who was going to be a two term president and he was totally loyal, faithful to president reagan, and a great servant in terms of trying to advance his political agenda. shannon: anita mcbride with me quickly dig it, give us a final word? the relationship between george w. bush and bill clinton. for those of us that worked in the right house during the very painful election of 1992, and we all thought that this person of george w. bush was diminished in our eyes through some of the rhetoric of that campaign, and when they became such friends later, i asked george h.w. bush this question on the plane to
great basketball coach from georgetown, had never met president bush, even though he had coached at georgetown during the time that president bush was in office and it was like a hole that he did not have because he did not have that one photograph with president bush, so i walked him over at halftime, and president bush was just so instead of the honor being for john thompson, it was the honor for president bush to be able to receive him and to spend five or 6 minutes before he had to go back on the air. sports meant an awful lot to him. in 2005, i got to interview both president clinton and president bush on the field in jacksonville before they flipped a coin for the game, the super bowl game in jacksonville, they went out and flipped it together. they had worked on the hurricane relief efforts together, and the earthquake efforts that they had gone and become a team and so they teamed up and came and flipped the coin.
meant. i finally figured out, former leader of free world.com. that was kind of the light way in which george h.w. bush obviously, he took the presidency seriously, but he didn t take himself seriously. the idea flfw.com was his email address. shannon: very lighthearted. we talk about just how much he loved to joke, a good punch line, even if it was that as his expense. he accomplished so much on the world stage that it s impossible to go through his entire resume and to remind people about all the things he did domestically and internationally, and what a brave navy aviator he was, going straight into the war, getting up on his dedication, getting through yale into an half years, and accomplishment for anyone. but he just kept charging and we talked about how he was a