it's on the presidency of george h. w. bush. ♪ welcome, everybody. my name is jim herman and i am here to moderate this discussion

with the governor. governor john sununu was the governor of new hampshire from 1983 to 1989 and served as white house chief of staff chief of staff from 1989 until 1991. he's the father of eight children which would explain a couple of those wrinkles. [laughter] but among his children is christopher sununu come into john sununu has a former united states senator. governor sununu was also the chairman of the new hampshire republican party from 2009 to 2011. i must confess to a little biased because governor sununu has written a book called the quiet man, the indispensable

presidency of george h. w. bush. for those of us from texas of course, 41 as we call him is one of the most revered of all texans. briefly, he was a hero. he was the youngest pilot in the united states navy in the second world war shot down. he went there after two yale where he was actually born while he was at yale. 41 was a phi beta kappa and all-american baseball player, captain of the baseball team. he his entire life was a huge success in private business and has a service to the united states is almost without. but this book is about george h. w. bush the person, and how that

person most characteristics and personality contributed to a wide variety of accomplishments. so please join me in joining -- join me in welcoming governor sununu. ' >> thank you very much. [applause] >> this is a touching book about sort of the inside story and a description of many events which contributed to the presidency of george h. w. bush. but because of his unique personality are not necessarily known by the public. why don't you tell us how you first came to be associated with 41 and under what circumstances. >> i was running for governor in

1982, and i was running against an incumbent democrat that was guaranteed to win, so to speak. i won that primary in september and i need a fund raiser, so i picked up the phone and called the vice president of the united states, whom i had met during his travels to new hampshire and 80 when he was trying to beat ronald reagan in the primary. and i said mr. vice president, i need somebody to come again to be the speaker at a fundraiser. 11 days later, george bush was there and we raised the money we needed to go on to defeat the incumbent governor. as i served as governor from 83 to 88 as it happens in new

hampshire can anybody that wants to run for president spends a lot of time talking to governors of new hampshire and i got to know george bush and barbara bush quite well not only in terms of individuals but frankly in terms of his commitment in particular to serving the public in understanding that one of the attributes that are really significant in this country over the years is that there are people that are willing to give up their time to make the country a little bit better if that was a perfect description of what george bush was all about. so, i got to know him then and obviously as we moved into the new hampshire primary season, it became an even closer relationship as he began to spend even more time up there. george bush went into iowa.

he lost iowa, came to new hampshire a little bit nervous. i met him in the barbara at the airport and i said relax. you're going to win new hampshire by ten points. they won by 9.6 and went on to confirm the fact iowa picks corn and new hampshire picks presidents. after getting beat by bob dole and pat robinson and iowa. he won the new hampshire primary and after that of course he got the nomination of course elected what i would like to do -- in the book as you go through a variety of situations and

achievements i would like to get into those of you don't if you don't mind, governor, give us a little insight. the cold war the wall came down and for the most part i think i reagan has recorded a good bit of credit for that. why don't you tell us a little bit about the personal relationship that developed between the chopped into president bush and how is humility and lack of ego contributed to the cold war coming to an end. >> i call this book of called this book of the quiet man.