rock, so we're awfully excited about sharing that with people who come in from around the country, and frankly it's a little bit of heaven on earth at least from those folks that get to enjoy it in north little rock. we want to welcome your viewers to little rock's old mill and ask them to come whenever they have a chance to visit when they are in the neighborhood. >> find out where c-span's local content vehicles are going next at c-span.org/localcontent. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> for the second time in recent months, former first ladies barbara bush and laura bush sat down for a conversation about their time in the white house as part of a series of conferences on america's first ladies in this discussion, moderated by historian and biographer doris kearns goodwin, we hear barbara bush on her husband's 1992 loss to bill clinton and thoughts on the 2012 presidential campaign. laura bush speaks about her work on behalf of women in afghanistan and about the moment they realized that average americans really do listen to what the first lady has to say.

this hour-long conversation took place at the george w. bush presidential center in dallas, texas, as part of the conference. america "america's first ladies: an enduring vision." [ applause ] >> hello, my name is mark langdale, president of the george w. bush foundation. i want to welcome to you the final panel of a great event

we're having today with the national archives and records administration. in my job, i get asked a lot, how do get the chance to work on building something as interesting and significant as the george w. bush presidential center? and i go, well, i have experience building complex real estate projects. i served in government. i'm interested in presidential history. i even like to watch c-span3. but the -- the big reason and the real reason that i have this really great job is 23 years ago, george and laura bush moved to dallas, texas and bought the house next door to me and we became friends, and if there is one thing i can testify to, it's true then, and true today. is that george and laura bush are true partners in life. and george w. bush truly and deeply loves his wife. it's an honor to introduce a man

that truly and deeply loves his wife, the 43rd president of the united states, george w. bush. [ applause ] >> thank you all for coming. so it seems fitting to me that for the american first ladies conference we actually have first ladies. and it's my honor to introduce them. before i do so, i want to thank mark langdale for his leadership of the george w. bush foundation, and thank anita mcbride for con receive examining sharing what has been a really fascinating discussion. actually watched some of it being streamed over the internet. i want to thank gerald turner of smu and the smu folks. smu is an awesome university by the way, and we're honored to be

associated with them. and neil kerwin, president of american university and his wife ann have joined us. thank you for being here. i want to thank the library directors, alan lowe, of course, of the bush president 43. warren finch, bush president 41. i'll be the funny guy. and mark updegrove of the lyndon johnson library right up the road. we have an awesome historian. i read a lot of history when i was president. i can hear people saying, we paid you all that money and all you did was read?

sit around reading? it was fascinating. i didn't watch much tv. it was fascinating to read history while i had the honor of making history. and no better historian to help a president understand the past and future by the way, than for is kearns goodwin. we're honored you are here. [ applause ] and so the other thing that impressed me about doris kearns goodwin, she raised a son who became a united states marine. volunteered to be a united states marine after september the 11th. i have the honor of introducing the best first lady ever. mom, would you take a tie?

obviously, i don't mind being surrounded by strong women. i was raised by one, i married one, and i believe we're raising two. welcome former first ladies, barbara and laura bush. >> thank you very much. >> i thought it was me. [ applause ] >> well, for me, this is such a great honor. you can imagine having spent my life trying to bring presidents and first lady who's were no longer alive to life? i got live ones here. much more fun. >> we hope. >> i always worry -- i worry that in the -- >> careful. >> i worry that someday -- i worry that someday in the afterlife there will be a panel

of presidents that i ever studied and everyone will tell me everything i got wrong. and the first person to yell out will be lbj, how come that book on the kennedys was twice as long as mine. what was it like when you first get to the white house? have you this great line where you said i woke up with the president elect. what's it like to wake up with the president in the morning? and know you are in a place with 132 rooms and you have to make it a home? how do you do that? >> the house really i think was very easy. we brought furniture for the one family room, which was beautiful. and our own curtains came, matched the couches that we brought. it's -- first of all, 90-some people who work for you are family. they really are. and when we went back all those years later, eight years later, when george and laura were there, there was our family. they were still there. some of them still there.

not many anymore. old age got them. >> did you have a favorite place in the white house where you liked to go? >> well, i loved my little office, because it was -- besides being nancy reagan's beauty parlor, which she didn't like me to say, but it was. the dogs were born there, and you could look out the window at jackson place and the -- what's that park? >> lafayette square. >> lafayette square and see all sorts of wonderful things. nobody else faced that part of washington, but i saw more people protesting us and some people who loved us, and i saw people at weddings. they would back up and have a wedding picture taken. i saw my first black bridesmaids dresses backing up to have their pictures taken by the white house. i mean their dresses were black, which i thought was amazing. >> i loved looking out people. >> how did you go about -- you

had already been there. >> i had a huge advantage that nobody else had except louisa adams. i had been there so often. having been there with my father-in-law president bush that is really is a home and i knew bard made it a home. our little girls when they were 7, when their grandfather was president, could slide down the ramp from the conservatory, the solarium, that you saw on several of the photos earlier, the wooden ramp, slide down on that on their bottom or make the running jump to the one big antique bed that was so tall that it required steps to get into, but barb barbara and jen could run and jump. and sasha and malia were shown all those tricks from their

childhood. i really knew. and because i knew there was this really magnificent collection of white house furniture, didn't move anything with us. we had just moved into our ranch house which is where all of our furniture went. so i brought one chest of drawers for my dressing room that was george's grandmother's, i just have that there, just to remember her, and then brought some of our books, a few of our books, also knew we would get lots of books, sdoint bring our whole library and personal photographs and had a wonderful time going to the big warehouse. you can't call it a warehouse, because it's really climate and temperature controlled with a conser conser conservetor, storage space where the furniture is kept and bringing back pieces to the white house. >> to what extent are you aware of other presidents and their -- their first wives or first ladies being there.

>> i think very much. i think there is a place in the white house that later became closets for ladies clothes, where i hung my evening clothes and things, if walk down, looking out at lafayette square where presidents made great pronouncements to people and we brought a historian up. lincoln historian up, and he said i can't believe i'm here. now, granted, they had redone the white house, but he felt he knew it. so he went right to the closet. down the corridor, and i think the girls' rooms opened. >> on both sides. >> he ran right down there and looked, and there wasn't the portico or something there, and he could feel lincoln giving the speech. >> wow. i can imagine that. >> and it was very exciting with him. one thing i forgot to mention, the thing i love most, i could hear jenna and barbara and marshall and walker, giggling,

laughing, riding bikes and swimming and who knew what? and george loved that. they would swim and come in -- and neil's children. but they lived in washington. jenna and barbara, they all came to visit. it was cosuso cute. in your own house and your grandchildren come, you work. when they come to the white house, there are 90-some people who will take care of them. >> when did you think of restoring the lincoln room? speaking of lincoln. i was able to see that, and you just did an amazing job. >> really, do you think of presidents the whole time you are there, and there is great comfort in that. you think of all of the other challenges that other presidents faced and our countries faced and how we overcame that challenge. it was very comforting after september 11th to know we can overcome this too and that we'll

move on and while peace may not be forever, neither is war, and there is a great continuity of living in a house where all of the presidents, every one of them, except for george washington had lived before you. so one of the things you do, you live with the effects of all the people that live before you. you live with their decorating, with their taste, their choice in -- in furniture, or in china or in decorative arts. all the things that were acquired by the white house during other terms. and slowly, i moved different pieces from the storage and set up each room and at one point during the second term, we determined it was time to redo the lincoln bedroom. last been done during president ford i believe. actually set up as a bedroom after truman renovated the white

house. the bedroom, the bed, had been in a room that's now the upstairs dining room across the hall from the presidential bedrooms. the room that's now set up is the lincoln bedroom, was lincoln's office before the west wing was built. obviously all the offices down at that end of the residence hall and it was the room that lincoln had signed the emancipation proclamation in. and we owned one of the five original copies of the gettysburg address, written in lincoln's hand and that was in the room and our guests, who would come stay in the lincoln bedroom, would look at that copy of the gooetsburg address and read it and weep. it was very moving to see. and so i worked with the white house historical association with the furniture curators and historians part of the advisory board, and we had little -- a little remnant of the wallpaper that had been on the wall of his room, we had photographs of the lincoln bed with the gold

corona, with purple and gold drapes that hung down from the corona. we knew from white house records that the corona had been sent away from the white house in 1927, so we reproduced all those things. so it's not a real reproduction, neither it's an office or a bedroom, but instead both. we went back to the same mill in england that had run the carpet for him on the 27-inch loom. >> wow. >> and we knew from the records that the carpet was "g" and "o," which the cure raateors think m green and oak, which is green and brown. we went back to the mill, and they don't have records what they sold to the white house, but we used a pattern that we think was the same. >> and i remember he signed the

emancipation and proclamation in that room. he had shaken so many hands on new year's morning, his own hand was numb and shaking. if i sign with a shaking hand, posterity will say he hesitated. sow waited and waited until he signed. and u.it's a really big, bold hd for him. it's great. >> do you remember the first guest of the bush family who stayed in that bed? we immediately sent a new mass tres for t mattress for the lincoln bed. the most uncomfortable bed. bucky and patty. our brother and sister-in-law said nobody could sleep on this bed. >> one night i was able to sleep in churchill's room and no way i could sleep. i was certain he was sitting in the corner drinking his brandy and smoking his cigar. that's the theme of a favorite

story in world war ii, and he churchill came after pearl harbor, they were supposed to sign a document, but roosevelt didn't like the word associated nations and wanted to call them united nations. comes wheeling in to churchill's room to help him the news. and he comes out of bathtub, with nothing on. he said oh, no, please stay. the prime minister has nothing to hide from the president. so anyway, speaking of churchill, sticking his stomach out, i recognized there is no regular ritual day in the white house, but what i recognized, is the athleticism of you, and you wrote a diary. we are sad to think in the future, 200 years from now, is that people won't have diaries. did you have a regular time you wrote in the diary?

>> i wake up very early. i woke up at 6:00 this morning. >> and wake up lively? >> i don't talk to anybody. wake up, put the dogs out, get the coffee, pick up the paperful but in those days, i really woke up pretty lively, and i just learned how to use a computer, and i -- i wrote a diary and actually john meacham has been given permission not to open it for 50 years, because i'm actually pretty naughty. >> who would guess? >> not to my precious daughter-in-law. anyway, i wrote a diary, and he is allowed to read part of it. but i didn't -- i'm ashamed to say i did lot write too much about we have a war going on. i really wrote more about i don't know what. i haven't read my diary in years. it's in the library and anyone

who reads it other than john meacham in a certain number of years will be shot. >> i guess as an historian, i won't be reading that. >> barb is so unbelievably disciplined. it takes a lot of discipline to write in a diary, and then she would go to the white house pool and swim laps. >> now i can't. since i have new knees, they sink. i'm in real trouble. >> what fun it must have been to live with you. >> i don't know as george thinks so. >> i think he does. speaking of routines of the day, when i read your memoir, the funniest thing is when you talked about at the white house correspondent's dinner, your nightly routine. but you tell these people about that. i loved it so. >> well, the white house correspondents dinner, have you probably seen it every year on television, but it's the evening when all of the white house

correspondents, the press that are assigned to the white house and their guests, and they always try to outcelebrity each other and invite lots of celebrities come to roast the president. as george said, everyone makes fun of the president and he stands up and makes fun of himself. so george was very funny at every one of the white house correspondent dinners. he said i've run out of ideas, why don't you surprise everyone and speak. so i had a very funny speech i think and george got up and -- to speak to the crowd, kind of laugh and sit and started telling a joke, and i sprang up and pushed him out of the way, and said, oh, no. not that old joke again. and people gasped. i mean, the people i was sitting with thought that i really had just jumped up. but anyway, then i talked about being a desperate housewife and how mr. excitement here was already in bed at 9:30.

and i said that one night lynne chaney and condi rice and karen hughes and i had gone to chippendales, and i wouldn't even have mentioned it, except sandra day o'connor and justice ginsberg saw us there. but that sort of humor doesn't really translate to most countries, because most countries you can't roast the president like that, and so from -- a year after that at least on foreign travel, heads of state, when we were somewhere else, would take me aside and say, are you really a desperate housewife? >> had yumor is such an importa thing. >> sometimes it backfires. i can't remember which dinner, but there is a white tie dinner. >> the gridiron. where they take themselves --

pardon me -- so seriously, you, the press, and it was on april 1st, and i thought, a-ha and i worked with my hair dresser and a wore a red wig and came out in my evening dress and george says you're not going like that, are you? and i said, yeah. i am. so we went to the dinner, and some people thought i had cancer. and some people said who is that woman with the president? and nobody thought it was funny. i had gone to great trouble to get this wonderful wig and that. anyway, it backfired. people were saying how are you for days after that. >> and you were just fine. to what extent do the first ladies get involved in preparing the meals or menus that are going to be eaten just for your ordinary nights? >> none.

>> ordinary nights, no. but the state dinners, they give you choices of different menus and actually everything they cooked was good. i do wish i was there again. only for the meals. >> we did have tastings for state dinners, usually invited congressmen that weren't going to be invited to the state dinner over. >> you were much smarter than we were. >> to be the guinea pigs. the white house chef would give us a weekly menu, and so if there was something on there we didn't think we would want, we would call and say don't fix that. but they were pretty terrific. >> they were unbelievable food. >> that's who we really miss. >> i can imagine. and one of the things i remember, of course, your husband didn't like broccoli and that became a famous moment. did you know that fdr hated broccoli too? >> oh, good. >> and his chef, a woman, was really tough and she would

constantly serve it. and she served him oatmeal every single morning and she cut out corn flakes, post toasties, 20 cents. couldn't i have something other than oatmeal. and he said chicken six nights a week, and his stomach was rebelling so much, he bit a foreign power. texas is so for ttunate to have three first ladies in recent history. tell us about your feelings about lady bird johnson. i had such enormous respect for and so lucky to have known her when i 26s4 years old. >> we both adored here, but i probably shouldn't say that. i was so offended by the altitude by the kennedy people who would say to you, oh, i wish would you have been here in the good time, not with the awful texans. i said i'm a texas.

they said no, you're not, you're from the east. and i said my five children are. we stopped doing them. we stopped going to those dinners, but they ridiculed her accent. she was the most wonderful lady. she did more for beauty in this country and she was so generous and genuine and i loved her. and until laura, she was my favorite first lady. >> i also really ahedmired her. and i was in graduate school when president johnson died and lie in state. lady bird were there and linda and lucy, there greeting every single person that came through, but i did get to take her on a tour of the white house the last time she came to the white house, linda brought her. and she was in a wheelchair and she lost her speech by then from a stroke. she was still so expressive with

her hands. and i showed her president johnson's paintings again. and she put her arms out to him and when we met her at the door, the doorman was -- had been the mater matre' d, and they fell into each other's arms and hugged. >> she came to the white house when we there were too. and told me a story about the picture of the little grumpy girl. that's right. a group standing look agent it, and someone said, maybe lady bird, said, isn't she grumpy? and a voice in the back said she wasn't always. i married her. you know the picture? the little grumpy girl. >> what it shows, when we often talk about first ladies and i like to talk about that in a

minute. we talk about what they've done and so mayou have both done so on lit racy and reading. and jbj was such a character. and she could put a hand on the knee and say lyndon, you don't re really mean that. that what you do in your marriage, your partnership, that's the real power, besides all the things do you in the world at large. let's start with you and lit race literacy. how did it happen that you chose that? >> i jogged around memorial park one year, knowing george was going to run. granted, nobody else thought he was, but i tried to think of something. i had worked in hospitals always as a volunteer, and then i thought i should do something that would help the most people and cost the government less money. i didn't want to be controversial. i got problems with that anyway.

i wanted to keep it down. it comes naturally. but i picked literacy, because there is no question in my mind and now i've gone into family literacy, because if you have a mother or father or caretaker that can read, they can follow their child in school and help them. if they can't, then the child doesn't have any inspiration. statistics in our country are shocking. the number of children who do not graduate from high school and just drop out of the system, and so we're working very hard still. i have turned my foundation over, they don't seem to take it as well as they should, but jeb and dara are doing nationally and neil and maria are on doing texas and george p. and mandy under them are doing ft. worth and dallas and keep saying mom, just sign this letter. i am happy to do that. i want them to take over.

i'm 8 -- almost 87. george needs me. he says no more. will not move and it makes a huge difference. what's more, i am loving having him to myself. i'm loving it. about time. but he's -- he's wonderful, he's loving and sweet. and he adores if the children are all great. neil and maria live across the street. certainly something i never would have done. she built a house across the street from us. i love the my mother-in-law, i would no more live within six blocks of her. we love our lives, a lot of good friends and he needs me. >> wow. >> so reading for you, the book festivals and eventually afghanistan and burma and speaking. once youai