But on my left we have texas land commissioner george p. Bush who is here speaking on behalf of the bush brand. [applause] susan page is the Washington Bureau chief for usa today and author of the recent and currently, i guess, still bestselling biography of barbara bush called the matriarch. She will be signing copies of it after this. [applause] and michael beschloss, one of the wonderful president ial authors who has written so many things, so many books. I will be asking you about some of the stuff i found in my old wellworn copy of character above all. The first thing id like to ask all of you, we lost barbara bush and george bush just so close together, what kind of reassessment do you think this has brought for the country as to, you know, what the bush name stood for and, you know, what the significance really was of all the work that they did in so many arenas of Public Service . Mr. Bush well, looking back on now. It was world war ii generation. It wasnt about them as individuals. It was the turning of the page of our countrys history in many respects. And, you know, i was privileged to be asked to give the eulogy for my grandfather when we came back to houston and really was a celebration of both of their lives. It wasnt a celebration of one individual. Also a celebration of our heritage. When you think about as texans their time and the patch in midland after world war ii, later rising the political ranks in texas. Really, just a story of a couple seeking to achieve the American Dream as it was defined. Those simple values and that work ethic i think was celebrated that week. I will say this, also, you know, in texas we had a different celebration, but in d. C. , i thought it was refreshing that for three days, lets call it, the white noise of washington, d. C. , just shut down, and the country really came together and it was really special to be part of and to witness. I hope people will continue to recognize the contribution of that generation. I covered the 1992 campaign where george bush lost his bid for a second term and we know how discouraging that was for him. Even in that election there wasnt animosity toward president bush and certainly not toward barbara bush. There was, i think, a feeling it was time for change after three terms of republican president s. I do think there has been a reassessment of both bushes since that election. I think one factor that has i think there is a new appreciation for the skill and deftness that which george bush handled the end of the cold war which was not a lead pipe. I think the administration of President Trump has prompted some americans to appreciate the civility, the bipartisan tone, the willingness to talk across party lines, the willingness to reach a compromise. Some of the qualities that president bush brought to the white house i think are newly appreciated today in a way it wasnt appreciated previously. I do think, also, that Barbara Bushs reputation continues which was never bad. Continues to get better as we understand more how influential she was. And i agree with everything thats been said so far. If you are looking for conflict, i think this is not the place to come for it. I think we are all great admirers of both. If you go back to 1992, the year that george h. W. Bush was defeated for reelection, the argument that bill clinton was making, his skills were out of touch. It was george h. W. Bush who ended the cold war, you could concentrate on the domestic side of american life. But he, to me, shows something thats very profound about history and that is that i like to think and i think other historians mostly feel the same way that as history goes on you begin to change your views of people. As time goes on and as you get access to letters and diaries and also hindsight. Because things dont look the same as they do a sitting president as they would 10, 20, 30, 40 years later. Preferably a later period of time. I think it allows more americans who think about this to understand just as susan was saying, it was not at all the cold war would end as it did. The cold war ended in 1991 on terms that harry truman and all these other cold war president s could only have dreamt of. And one of the central reasons that happened, every cold war president made a contribution, but, you know, i think we were protected by god when george h. W. Bush was president during the last years of gorbachev because if i went back through time and i was looking for qualities in a president that will turn out to be important, i would want someone with the human qualities and the diplomatic skill to build a relationship with gorbachev so that gorbachev could do things like open the berlin wall and allow the Eastern European satellites to go and later on to join nato in a way that he did not feel that george h. W. Bush would make fun of them or, you know, embarrass him in certain ways. And so that we now see i think much more clearly how lucky we were to have him as president. And the other thing ill say, and i want to ask particularly susan and karen about this because both are and have been writing about first ladies, ive been doing this for almost 40 years. I have written primarily about first ladies. Ive been writing about books about president with first ladies by and large and i have met a number of them, including barbara bush, i had the honor of, and also nancy reagan, how far are you along . Getting there. One thing i would generally say about first ladies, and you all tell me if this sounds right to you, george would have to comment on this, and that is you ask the first lady about something that you know they did during a presidency and theyll always essentially say, it wasnt me. It was the president. I may have had some small influence. It was either his idea or he really carried the load on this. Give him the credit. And the more time you spend studying first ladies, particularly after they and the president s are gone, you find how vitally important these first ladies were, both in their own right and also in these president cis. Presidencies. Maybe the best example of that would be bess truman. Beth truman at the time was thought of by the general public as someone who barely knew what her husband was doing professionally. Spent a lot of time in the truman home in missouri. Was not even in washington to see these huge events that harry truman was in the center of. Korean war. Integration of the military and so on. And then after they were both gone and you began to get into letters and diaries and so on, you saw how really essential she was, not only to him but to that presidency. So all im telling you is if you hear a first lady in real time or a first spouse, as man will be first spouse i hope soon i really didnt have much to do with this. Just give the credit to the president. Be a little bit skeptical. Does that sound right to the two of you . Let me pose an incredible difficult question to george p. Bush. Barbara bush, aids was an issue. Behind the scenes she was influential. More generally as a partner to george h. W. Bush through his whole life. She was just indispensable to him. One of the questions i interviewed about 130 people for the book. I would end the interview by saying, if george w. Bush had not married barbara pierce, would he have done everything he did, he did, including becoming president . I asked barbara bush and she said, of course he would have. I asked george h. W. Bush and he thought about it and he said, yes, i think i would have. [laughter] by the way, if youre married, thats the wrong answer to give. In the husbands manual. But almost every other person i interviewed, not quite everyone, but almost everyone said, no, he wouldnt have done all he did without being married to barbara pierce. And the younger person to have responded would have said shes crucial. And the generation of the grandchildren, some of them did not seem to understand the question. Like, how could you ask that question . Of course. So let me ask you, if george h. W. Bush hadnt married barbara pierce, would he have done all he did including becoming president . Absolutely not. Bone, she wasck the enforcer. Actually, the enforcer was sort of later in life. The silver fox, you tell me if my memory was right, Time Magazine . The gray fox which seemed insulting. Then it morphed into the silver fox. As the label came later it clearly and the entourage and family for sure. Heres my question for george. I would assume that was because she wanted to be thought of as the silver fox. As lovely as she was. Big side of her, family person, and but at the same time later on as life went on people realize she had a tough side. Absolutely on point. I am sure you never saw that. No. I was never the recipient. Well, whether it was sitting up straight, which i am not doing. She always loved her clothing. Absolutely. It required the skillset to raise george w. Bush the way he was raised. No. She clearly was the enforcer in the family and instilled the code. Of service in all of us. She at times was the bad guy, if you will, in terms of executing discipline. And that started in the days of midland all the way to the 18 grandkids up in maine. We all respected my grandma. She made sure we sat up straight, spoke with correct grammar. To speak correctly. Were going to miss her so much. Thats the spirit that she had. I would say politically she was an advisor to my grandfather. She wasnt the one that ruled the roost internally within the family. She was the first person that gampy would ask advice on, particularly early on when he had two senate losses and other political challenges that faced him, from watergate on. Sitting as we are in austin, texas, so the bushes come to midland as newlyweds and they are two kinds of exotic species. You didnt see much of in texas. They were connecticut yankees. And they were something that was even rarer at the time, they were republicans. Later, after they moved to houston, your grandfather takes over the Republican Party in part because there was a battle going on between the corporate republicans and the berkshires. I think the bush family is so so crucial to implanting the kind of d. N. A. Of the Republican Party into texas politics. The kind of republicanism that you see today in texas in many ways doesnt really resemble that that much. Or do you still sense that its there . There could be a return to it, perhaps . Sure. Id say there is a silent majority of republicans that build their lives, raise their families, dont have the time to go and be as active as they want to be and look for solutions and oriented leadership whether its in austin or washington, d. C. Regretfully, because of the conflicts that we have seen in texas within our own party, weve actually lost some of our supermajorities, particularly in the state house. Here i am on my soapbox saying i am one of the few republicans trying to bring people together, as we head into redistricting year here in texas which is decided by the composition of the house and senate that the stakes, this cycle, which you always hear from politicses, politicians most important election in your lifetime, truly is the case. The state trends more blue. Susan, one of the really interesting things you came across in your research, you asked mrs. Bush, do you still consider yourself a republican . And what did she say . Well, the first time i interviewed her for the book in 2017, we came up on the oneyear anniversary of President Trumps election and it will stun you to say she was not a huge fan to of President Trump. Its been about a year. Are you still a republican . She said, yes. What turned out to be the last interview that i did with her in february, 2018, although we didnt know at that point it would be the last interview, i said, you know, the first time i talked to you i asked if you are still a republican, do you still feel that way . She said, no. No, i dont think i am. It doesnt mean she was a democrat. She didnt like democrats the an at all. I think she felt she no longer had a home in the Republican Party. Its interesting that in the last president ial election they could vote in, george h. W. Bush voted for Hillary Clinton. Barbara bush didnt like Hillary Clinton much either. And so barbara bush wrote in jeb bushs name for president. It says something about the couple that helped establish the g. O. P. In the state, neither of them voted for the republican president or candidate in the last election of their lives. The other thing is, we talked about probably the accomplishment of George Herbert walker bush that he will get the biggest place in the history books for guiding, not just this country but the whole world through the end of the cold war. I mean, he was so sure footed. He was also he had these relationships. The president talks about america first. George bush had relationships with the key players that went back decades. Envoy to china. Head of the c. I. A. Do you think that this kind of internationalist strain of the Republican Party still exists or has donald trump taken it to a different place . Well, hes the leader of the party so he does define Foreign Policy. Republicans dont have to agree on every single issue there is. If you look back on the time of my grandfather, whether it was being the first liaison to china before we diplomatically recognized them, he viewed that as one of his favorite posts of alltime. But in terms of his international relationships, he used to joke when he was Vice President about the string of russian premieres that would die, the soviet premieres, if you die, i fly, and he really prided himself on his frequent flier miles in developing those relationships and making sure our National Security objectives were being achieved. But he when he whenever you could get him to talk about politics, which is very difficult to do as a grandchild, he would be with excitement when it came to Foreign Policy. Michael, again, the surefootedness, the degree to which he based these relationship of therust, and the plus with other or leaders, and you also saw that with the international coalition, going into the first gulf war for sure. It was very much him. Not only the fact but he had a personality that was just designed for diplomacy. But he had been ambassador to the u. N. Since 1971. You know, relatively early in life. And thats what you do up there. A lot of the people he knew as ambassadors were leaders that just following up on something we talked about before. I have heard someone say and it sounds sort of right to me but the three of you, please tell me if it sounds right to you, and that is that barbara bush and nancy reagan, your two subjects, didnt have, susan, maybe the closest relationship . Yeah. And didnt have a lot in common except the fact they went to smith college. But one thing was that they were married to people that were optimistic, like to make friends, light to see the best in people, and in that case those two women, if they walked into a room and i would say this for both of them, and there was someone, you know, 18 rows back who did not have george h. W. Bushs best interest at heart, you know, barbara bush just had the sense or sensed that person in the room that person was a danger or needed some work and i think nancy reagan did too. Does that sound right to all of you . Any part of that . I think barbara bush was more likely to remember an offense and to exact a price. Whereas george h. W. Bush was much more likely to either to likely forget about it or to forgive. Do you think thats true . Absolutely. My grandmother had a longterm memory. I have the scars to show for it. And that applied to politics. Ande would be a discussion she would say that soandso did back in texas. She was usually the first to jump in on prior political conflicts. Thats what it was meant as the enforcer . Exactly. Quites do you think, george, that was something to his political career, would he have been able to exceed without it, did it go too far sometimes . He obviously had great advisors along the way, but theres nothing like the spouse stepping in. He had no other agenda. No other agenda. I think people forget. When they look at the reaganbush partnership for eight years, they forget how brutal that 1980 republican primary really was. The debate in dallas. They really went at each other. You want to remind us what happened in dallas, just in case everyone voodoo blank . There was voodoo economics. Nancy reagan didnt forget that. And you know, just beginning to end that primary was very, very difficult. But several people ive talked to about all of this suggests that often its easier for the husbands to let go of this than the wives. Let me just say or the candidates. Theres a i dont want to identify this person who i interviewed for the book, an elected official whos on stage now [laughter] 00 22 18 didnt know that karen had so i dont even know if you remember saying this. We were talking about this very aspect of his grandparents relationship and this i named unnamed elected official on stage said, its either important not you but the person we are talking about. Its important or useful, sometimes necessary for the candidate or the official to have amnesia, so its easier to trust. Meone else you if you want to govern, sometimes you have to let bygones be bygones. You have to buildup your coalition. Maybe it is useful to have someone thinking come about person was not with you when you ran last time. Even jackie kennedy, whos considered to be sort of the end of being uninvolved in her he once toldeer, jfk, why are you being so nice to x . I forget who x was. I thought he did this terrible thing. And j. F. K. Said, well, hes done nice things during the weeks since then. And you cant go through politics if you are a candidate or officeholder. And you have that in your mind all the time. But is it important to have someone who does have that in mind . Thats a question. Can we ask the Office Holder . Absolutely. Well, especially in the twitter era, right . If you read your comments, youll usually receive incoming from all directions. But its important to have somebody that can keep an honest appraisal, that can remove yourself, because as somebody in politics, whether my granddad, its difficult to remove yourself. If that makes sense. Thats a vital role my grandma played throughout. Honestly for that matter, so did the kids. My dad and my uncle, you know, worked extraordinarily hard. All of us did to make sure they were successful. But also give that honest appraisal whenever tough decisions were being made. One story ill share, i remember in