Give us a wonderful, wonderful presentation about george h. W. Bush. Well have question and answer after weekends awards and becaus filming tonight, please, use the microphones that we will place, i think one right there and one over to the side there, and thats so your question doesnt get lost on cspan. I want to welcome all of you, and let you know how much we appreciate you all being here tonight. Especially knowing that the democratic partys done a little bit of counterprogramming. [ laughter ] of course, weve got another, another 15 monthsplus to get our fill or probably more than our fill of 2020 president ial campaigning. Here were going to take a few moments to remember a man who won it in 1988. A president who it seemed the longer he lived, the more loved and appreciated he became. I was struck like many others, i think, by the national outpouring of respect and affection in the days leading up to and through the funeral of George Herbert walker bush last november. The funeral of his wife barbara, a little more than seven months earlier. Former president al gore said bush xli, and he was the 41st president. George w. Is bush xliii. Gore says he served our nation with extraordinary integrity and grace. [ applause ] and the country seemed anxious to celebrate those qualities last november and december. He was a world war ii hero, of course, before he began his long political career. By and large history looks back pretty favorably on his presidency. Brookings institution surveyed nearly 200 political scientists earlier this year, and asking them to rate all 44 president s, and the elder bush came in 17th. Just behind john kennedy, just ahead of james monroe. He drew praise for Foreign Policy in large part popularity sank as the economy sank, and he didnt win reelection in 1992. But he won the nation back as a former president. And jean becker was at his side in some cases hanging on for dear life as she puts it for those 25 years. Its great to have her here. For personal reasons, because jean and i go back a ways. We grew up together in a small Farming Community about three hours east of here. Her family farm, my family owned an operated the International Harvester dealership in martinsburg, missouri. Those are the red tractors. Not the green tractors. [ laughter ] i went from our little tiny high school sitting out in the middle of the country to Journalism School at university of missouri, and jean went on to the Journalism School at university of missouri. I took my first job at what essentially was our home town paper the mexico ledger. And a couple years later jean took her first job at the mexico ledger. I moved from there to the newspaper in springfield, missouri. Owned by the net, then the largest newspaper chain in the country. And jean moved to the newspaper in danville, illinois, owned by ganet, the largest newspaper chain in the country. In 1982, i went to this new National Newspaper that ganet was starting, usa today pap few year the later, jean went to usa today. I was not stalking you [ laughter ] i can tell where youre headed. [ laughter ] we both have dirt on each other and we both have promised a non a mutual disarmament agreement tonight. I worked in the papers department, a sports writer. Some people back in martinsburg when my wife and i would go back and visit, see folks after church, they used to think what i did was pretty cool. I got to go to big games around country. The olympics every four years. I got to falk talk to players a coaches, but then jean parted ways. And goes to the white house. And then when paula and i would visit martinsburg and visit with people after church it was, wow, jean becker what do you marhear from her . Jean covered the 1988 election, the one in which george bush defeated Michael Dukakis and barbara bush took a liking to her which is not surprising. And she invited jean to serve as her deputy press secretary. Jean spent four years in the white house, from 89 to january of 93. George obviously took a liking to her, too. He made her his chief of staff. The job that she held until he died. Its safe to say that nobody knew george and barbara bush better than jean, and i think i would include the bush family in that. The birthday parachute jumps, the humanitarian collaborations with bill clinton. She was a party to all of it. If not orchestrating all of it. And she was one of the handful of people at his bedside when he died. The beautiful little Memorial Services that you all saw back in december, they were planned and executed by jean. Now, you my not know it, you probably dont, but jean has written or edited five books . Hmm, i think so. As she points out, none with her name on it. One was barbaras memoirs published in 1995. Another a book of george bushs writing s other letters release in 1999. Shes writing two pearls of wisdom coming out around mothers day, brash bush famous for giving advice and jean collected all the advice off forward children and grandchildren to bill clinton. By the way, all of the proceeds from that book, jeans donating to the Barbara Bush Foundation for family literacy. The second book, which i think the publisher is pushing for release in 2021 will be about what shes discussing tonight. The remarkable postpresidency of george h. W. Bush. She insists that her name will be on that one. So in the crowd tonight are a number of people from back home. Theyve driven here to hear jean speak. Family, friends, coworkers. So you know, back in martinsburg and in mexico, still pretty darn proud of her. Just between us, i am, too. Please welcome my friend jean becker. [ applause ] okay. Its sort of odd after that wonderful introduction. I feel bad that the first thing im going to say is, when steve picked me up at the airport yesterday we werent even out of the parking garage when he said, dont you dare tell them that time that we and i i do know stuff about him, and to his coworkers who are here, i can be long. Am i already in trouble . Ah. Oh, wait. There we go. This is one of my favorite pictures of president bush and me, and oddly, were at a dukes basketball game. For any of you who are College Basketball fans, probably seven or eight years ago when president bush had already been diagnosed with parkinsons and in a wheelchair and his health declining, coach k wrote him a letter and said it is on my bucket list for you to attend a home game of duke. Would you come . And i showed the letter to president bush, and i was, like coach k thinks youre going fly to North Carolina and see duke play at home. There we are. [ laughter ] so i love starting with that photo. Its a good photo of me and i dont take very many of them. Certainly working for president bush was just one of the great privileges of my life. He taught me so many things. He taught me to live life with joy. To think big. Okay, nelly, youre going to have to move if youre going to cry. This is my sister nelly sitting flight front of me and about ready to burst into tears. I have to move you he told me to live life with joy. To think big. To be humble, and to make a difference. He wasnt perfect. There were certain things that scared, honestly, scared me to death. The fib scariest words George Herbert walker bush could say to me was, jean, i have an idea and these words usually took place. He came in about 7 00 in the morning and would come. He would have read three newspapers and drank a pot of coffee and says, jean, i have an idea. Sometimes the idea would be, lets go get pizza for lunch. And i would be, oh, thank god. Okay. I would love to. Then sometimes, and i remember this specifically was january 2nd, and we were just sort of recovering from the holidays and he came in and he said, jean, i was thinking over the holidays, and he said, i would like to go back to where i was shot down during world war ii. So figure that out and well talk over lunch and i was like, oh, my goodness, and we can talk about that later if we have time, but what i really want to talk about is the fact that most of his biggest ideas he reserved in his neverever ending mission to make a difference. Oh i love that. And here here, they just taught me how to use this. See if i figured this out. I have. Heres the big shock. Thats president clinton. Who, of course, beat him soundly in 1992, and they became known at the odd couple because they became friends and eventually they became father and son, and they, they bonded over was their mutual desire. We did all of this Disaster Relief work, starting with, there was a horrible sue nam they hit south Asia Christmas day 2004 and we traveled to south asia. Im not sure where we are here. Look at those cute kids. This may be new orleans. Then we did katrina. These two men alone raids 250 million and then did hurricane ike, but we raised a lot of money together. They became very close. President clinton still misses him terribly, and im not telling you this to name drop but im having lunch with president clinton in new york in two weeks, because he misses president bush so much, he called and said, can you come have lunch with me . Im like, okay, but i think i have forgot all this is, this is on the this is a tsunami trip. I think this is indonesia. This is a trip where they became friends. And this is also the trip, while president bush slept flying over, president clinton taught me to play a game, a card game calmed oh, hell i then taught to my familiened we played it all afternoon in the lobby of the courtyard marriott and i lost to my brotherinlaw. So im sort of grumpy about that. This is president bush reading to a group of kids. Fairly certain this is sri lanka. We went to a school. Their school was gone so they were having classes outside. Now, this is the story you really want to hear. George clooney. God, hes gorgeous. So this is actually part of Disaster Relief. So this is after katrina, and what most of you probably dont know is just a week or two after katrina another huge hurricane came through texas and parts of louisiana called hurricane rita, and hardly anyone some of you are nodding your head, but katrina was really sucking the air out of the room. The media was very focused on new orleans, what was happening in new orleans. President bush got a call from a little bitty town, cameron, louisiana, that had been totally wiped out. The only thing left standing was the courthouse, built during fdrs administration and president bush had a relationship with cameron in the offshore oil drilling business. Cameron is where he would go his point on land where he would go to visit his oil rigs, and they called him and said, can you help . And he said, of course. What do you need . And they said, we need, our hospitals gone. If we could just build an emergency room asap. I think people would start coming home if they knew they had an emergency room where they could go and he also the guy who called that i was talking to said, the offshore Oil Rig Workers also used our emergency room. We need and emergency room. So immediately into overdrive and raise an additional 2 million, and the week before christmas i think 2005, president bush is going to fly to cameron, louisiana, with a check for 2 million, and theyre going to dig, break ground for a new emergency room. He put together this lovely program. The governors coming. The High School Marching bands going, is going to march. Theres going to be speeches and ribbon cutting. Im showing president bush the schedule. Its like five days before christmas, and he said, jean, this is really boring. He said, these poor people have lost everything. We cant go do this and put them to sleep, and as possible i had attitude. Just raised 2 million for them. I mean, sir, were going to give them a check for 2 million. He says, we need to jazz it up. And he says, what are we building there . I said an emergency room. He said i knew that. He says i have a great idea. [ laughter ] so heres the problem with this idea. He said, barb and i just love this tv show e. R. And he said, theres this wonderful actor named George Clooney whos the star. He says, lets call George Clooney, and ask him to come. He says, you get it, e. R. , e. R. Well, heres what he didnt get. It theyre watching e. R. On tnt in reruns. George clooney had not been on e. R. For years. Hes already doing ocean 10, i said, sir, i tried to explain reruns and tnt. He says, we got to take George Clooney. I dont know George Clooney. I dont have him in my rolodex. A long story short, the man who produced all the ocean movie as guy Jerry Weintraub since died and president bush, i was telling him about the ocean mefs, hes no longer in e. R. I think jerry did those ocean movies. He called jerry and George Clooney went. I was sick dogs. Did i go . Yes, i did. [ laughter ] because we had to send a plane for georges one requirement, it was we send a plane. I dont blame him. So we found a plane. They stopped in houston. Jerry weintraub came, picked president bush and me up and off we go to cameron, louisiana. The two cutest georges ive ever met in my life. One huge mistake. Theres no picture with me and George Clooney. [ laughter ] and coming home, my ears had totally before they stuffed up, i asked him why he did this i said, why would you do this . You dont know him. You dont know us. This obviously isnt political, but youre not exactly a republican, and his answer was, i was so impressed that he wanted to do this. Cameron, louisiana, is not in the news. The medias not there. The tv cameras arent there. Cspan wasnt there. Everybody was in new orleans, and George Clooney said, if youd asked me to go to new orleans i probably would have said, no, but i was so touched by what he was doing i wanted to be a part of it. Now, the end of the story which you can choose to believe or not is my ears completely stopped up from my cold or whatever. And george kept talking to me. I have no idea what he said, and to this day, its possible he asked me to marry him. [ laughter ] and and i just kept going, uhhuh, uhhuh. Yeah. President bush was the master of acts of kindness. It really is probably the number one thing ive learned from him. And its not that i was ever a mean person, but it was just interesting to watch the way he lived his life. And in big ways and small ways, this picture really doesnt have a lot to do with well, sort half to do with the next story im going to tell. This is three days after 9 11. And this is the National Cathedral, the Prayer Service at the National Cathedral that all the president s came to, and the 43rd president had just sat down good giving his remarks and his dad reached over to funny, when president and mrs. Bush, i just want to play with this, these two, were on their way to the airport, it is protocol that the president s always sit in the order of which they served. So technically, the clintons should be sitting next to the 43s and then the 41s and then the carters, and president bush called me on the way to the airport, the dad, and he said, i really would like to sit next to my son at this service. And i said, okay. Well see what we can do on that, and president clinton was very gracious, and completely understood. But one of the reasons, well actually, ill tell you, tell you my 9 11 story. I was actually in washington, d. C. On 9 11, with president and mrs. Bush. We were in a meeting the day before this cancer group they headed up. They were wheels up about 8 00 a. M. That morning to go to minneapolis, minnesota, where they had, they were going to give speeches that day. I was staying in washington, d. C. To keep continuing to attend meeting of this cancer group. So 9 11 happens, and chaos, of course, and i had no idea where they were. They would have been in the air at the time. So i got the secret service on the phone and the secret Service Agent said, thank heavens you called. President bush wants to know where you are. I said, im at the Renaissance Hotel in d. C. , were on total lockdown. Were fine. Did i do that . Am i doing something . Okay. I said where is he . And the agent said, cannot tell you that. Like every plane in america, theyve been grounded. And nair a safe, secure location, but i cannot tell you on an unsecure phone. I assumed take ton West Virginia. Do all of you know we have a secret place in West Virginia where i think thats not classified. Is it . Okay. Good. I think we we talked about this a long time ago, found about abf out about it. In West Virginia where a lot of d. C. Would be evacuated to at time of war. About 6 30 that evening im sitting with my coboard members from this cancer group and were waiting for the bred to addrepr address the nation. My cell phone went off. Surprising. Cell service in d. C. That day was really terrible. My cell phone rings and its president bush. I said, oh, my gosh. I said, im so happy to hear from you. I says, i know you cantte tele where you are because i know youre in a classified place but im so happy to hear from you. He said were at a hampton inn in milwaukee, wisconsin. [ laughter ] so i i, that could have been the first time i knew i had to write a book, and i told him in the secret service said. They told me in some very secretive classified place. Jean, who the hell would try to find me at a hampton inn in milwaukee, wisconsin. Barbra and i realize, watching tv all day like everybody else in america and a little while ago figured we were hungry and walked across the street to the outbake steakhouse. Can you match imagine . He said, they were a little surprised when we walked in. Literally the night of 9 11 and the president s parents, just happened to be former president and first laid walk in, in milwaukee, wisconsin. After 9 11, president bush, this is part of how his sort of small acts of kindness. He was very disturbed by the antimuslim feeling in the country, and we go back to houston. At kentuck