there was a great welcome. while driving home, there was a beaten-up truck. people standing on it and a great big banner that said "welcome home, george and barbara." and we were home. >> and you were home. >> that made it okay. i'm going to weep over it, but it made it okay. we have loved being home. i probably more than george. jimmy baker and susan are -- as close friends as he has. but his are dropping off a little faster than they should. passing on. i have a lot of friends there that i really love. but the first time in my life i work in the church on monday morning doing kneeler, meeting new people. they are so great. they do -- they do prison -- they go to the prisons. they do under the bridge which is the homeless. they feed them. they are the most wonderful

people. i had a great time with friends. >> i loved what you said in your memoir. after it was over, you said hooray, life after politics. which is one of the extraordinary things about our country that one day you are the president and the first lady living in this mansion, most powerful people in the world and next day you are private citizens and it is a miracle that that happens here. in so many other countries in the world, it doesn't happen. it's great. >> in england they are beaten and thrown out of number ten the next day. they are out. that's not easy. >> you have been around a little while. >> come on. you don't have to be ugly. [ laughter ] >> all i was going to ask you was does it seem to you as it does to me as an historian that times are coarser in terms of critiques today? i'm sure maybe things -- we were talking about this before were terrible prior to the civil war.

you had a senator who was hit on the head with a cane and didn't recover for a couple of years. and yet, there's something about the language, the negative and dysfunction of washington now that i've never seen in my lifetime. >> never, ever. it is -- you don't have to be you a round long to see that. but it has been -- i think the worst campaign i have ever seen in my life. i just hate it. i hate the fact that people think compromise is a dirty word. it is not a dirty word. [ applause ] >> absolutely. >> you, you haven't been around long enough. but you can speak. >> well, i think -- you know, obviously i thought when george was being criticized that things were really worse than ever. but then we went to the lincoln library in springfield with richard and saw those terrible cartoons about lincoln and you realized it is just kind of part of american politics. the great news is we do elect somebody and they do serve for four years and then if they are re-elected they get four more.

if they're not, they move out and somebody else moves in. i think it is just an example for the rest of the world. >> you are much kinder than i am. i think the rest of the world is looking at us and thinking -- what are you doing? why aren't you getting along? why aren't you working together? i'm sort of sad that we are not doing better. you are much more optimistic than i am. >> realistic. >> i'm optimistic but i would like this campaign to be over. >> i think once upon a time when people stayed in washington on the weekends before travel was easy, before they had to go home to raise the money for the ridiculous amounts the elections cause, friendships were form aid cross-party lines. they would play poker together. get together on weekends. >> what robert says, but when she was a child and her parents were friends with people -- because you live there and you went to the little league games together with your children. no matter what side of the aisle you were on. >> now they run home on thursday nights and come back on tuesdays

and there's -- a real tribal sense of who is on what side. >> we were great friends with rostenkowski. george called him in jail. and bob strasburg. [ laughter ] we had great friends. we really did. but on the other hand, the press in those days did not -- if a senator or congressman fell under the table from drink, nobody mentioned it. >> right. >> but today they're pretty tough. >> no, i mean, i think about the fact when franklin roosevelt felt in 1936 coming to the democratic convention and his braces unlocked, he fell on the floor, his speech sprawled out, and they finally -- get me together. he gets up to the podium. he delivers a speech which is one of the best speeches in history. and the press never mentioned he had fallen. there wasn't a picture of him falling. they just talked about the speech.

>> well, i do think the press is part of the reason it looks so acrimonious. because any little thing is repeated a million times. where before nothing, you know, you wouldn't ever have been repeated or most people wouldn't have heard it. >> there is a sense in the older days that the private lives of our public figures were relevant only if they affected their public responsibilities. so there was a certain kind of cushion of tolerance for people's lives to have some privacy. that's what i worry about whether people are going to be willing to enter public life now. >> why would they? intercontinental. >> yeah. >> well, because it is still -- as you know, looking for all the difficulty, you wouldn't change it for the world, right? >> no. except i would -- i think people would have a very hard time running for public office. for the presidency. these people have -- they are exhausted. and it's act monthious, if that's a word. and it's sad. >> it used to be it would be from september until november.

because you had the brokers at the conventions. maybe that's what we need to go back to. good-bye, primaries. come back to those days. what extent does humor help to allay those difficulties? like for example, i know you had dana carvey to the white house. what a brilliant maneuver. tell me how that happened. >> george. george. the whole white house when we lost was in the dumps. nobody smiled. bless their hearts. they were looking for jobs. you know. three months to do it in. and everybody was in the dumps. so george invited dana carvey to come. we went to, i think, the kennedy he sat way away.e night before. nobody knew he was there. stayed at the white house. and then we went down, gathered george gathered everyone together. and they went, you know, and ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. in walks this tiny little funny man. and everybody -- he was wonderful. he imitated george and then introduced george. george imitated him.

it changed the whole feeling of the -- it was so sad. very sad. i mean, all looking for jobs. all in tears. but it cheered up. george is very funny. >> i remember this is one famous moment when somebody said to lincoln, you're two-faced. he looked back he said if i had two faces, do you think i would be wearing this face? that seems missing in politics today, too, the sense of looking at yourself from the outside and laughing. you know. it just -- it seems -- >> he must have been a wonderful man. >> i loved living with him. >> most embarrassing thing is one time i was on jon stewart. i fell so in love with lincoln. i said on jon stewart, i said i think he was really sexy, too. but that's not what you think of for abraham lincoln. but there is this picture of him before the beard when he had this real ragged hair and he looked great. after that, you think lincoln was sexy?

okay. what do you think is -- how do you memorize the things that you need to remember? you're in these state dinners. i know somebody tells you the name of the person when you come in. you have to remember stories about people. do you cultivate memory? i know your husbands have to, but you must have to as well. >> it is a matter of concentration. yeah. i think you get better at it. for sure. >> the good thing about being a woman is you can kiss a woman and man. you may not know them. they think you know them. george could not kiss the men. that works for me. still. if i kissed you, you know i love you and know you. i don't know your name. but i love you. >> do you remember the story you told in your memoir about helen hayes? this is a great story of helen hayes talking about would old women at a bridge party. >> oh yeah. >> mrs. bush told this. do you want me to tell it? >> yeah, you tell it.

>> they were at a bridge party. the one old lady said i really like playing bridge with you but i'm so embarrassed. i have been playing a while. i can't quite remember your name the other old lady said, could you give me a few minutes to try to think of what the name is. >> we are at that stage in our lives. >> so how -- how hard is it to leave the white house? i mean, what is it like when -- you know you're going to camp david for the last time. you are going to see the troops for the last time. tell me about camp david. i feel always so terrible one time lyndon johnson invited me to go. i wept out with my stupid boyfriend to the movies instead. so i have never seen it. what is it -- >> we love camp david. all the bushes did. we went all -- a lot when president 41 was president. we went for all four years from christmas and then they came christmas and then they came with us for all eight years for christmas. we had the record that i know will never be broken of the number of christmases at camp david. we loved going there. so relaxed and lots of different sports.

but great place to entertain people. we had friends. a lot of our friends came every year. at least once to camp with us and everyone could just have their own cabin. and meet for meals. and it was very relaxing. to have camp, i think. >> you know they put camp david a book and they write, people who have stayed up there. and i suspect that between us, because we are both married to very gregarious men, i guess, and they invite everybody they know. when they got to the bushs and they skip a thing or before the bushs, there's two, three guests maybe. maybe. bs bshs -- bushs, are everybody room is filled. and that made it so much more fun. sharing it with friends, but really, i think -- i'm sure george did, too, my george got more work done at camp david because we would invite guests, and say we will see you at

lunch, play tennis, bowl, do whatever you want. we will see you at lunch. george worked. i probably worked on my diary. george worked and met with people, business people, and could help you with problems. did you do that? >> yes. >> yes, mom. >> i think it was a great place. nobody knew who was there. they could drive in and out. so you could meet without any problems. >> we used it a lot for entertaining heads of state and you know cabinet members. and congress people that would come with us on various trips. >> there must have been a greater sense of just while you are in the confines of camp david, you can roam around. >> that's right. you can go for long walks. >> i remember -- somebody related to you told me -- the windows in the white house do not open and you can open them at camp david, is that true? >> they had some.

>> we used to open the bed room window. >> we had the bedroom open. but i do remember when gorbachev came and mrs. gorbachev came out and he was sort of like you and we walked. oh, yes. i'm dying to walk. she had blisters beyond belief. and we put her into lower shoes later. but he stood up and george -- this is horseshoes. george said yes. he threw a ringer. a ringer. the first one. only one he shot. so george at dinner had it mounted. >> it must have been an incredible thing to have gorbachev there and having lived at the height of the cold war and here you have this head of russia there. and you become friends. i mean, that's -- that's a huge circle in our history. >> they brought putin to our house at walker's point. we became great friends. but i think that's lost now. >> george's story was so moving

to us how close he was, from the japan, was one of first to call after 9/11 to offer his alliances with us. when george's dad and his dad fought, you know, had been sworn enemies with each other in world war ii. the idea that somebody who had been an enemy, that short of a time, one of our closest allies now is really amazing. >> so how did things physically change in the white house after 9/11? >> right after 9/11 the tours stopped. we no longer -- really the white house is one of the only, i think, homes of a head of state that is open for public tours. but they stopped for a while. the white house book sellers used to sell their white house historical association books right in the white house but now that doesn't happen anymore. i think people have to leave their purse and shopping bags and things outside. >> where do they buy the books now? >> they have to go down the street.

it was really -- white house historical -- association or one of our partners in these conferences as well and i think it did hurt their fund-raising. they had been able to sell a lot more from their gift shop. when their gift shop could be in the white house. so the white house was very quiet. that very first christmas of 2001, you know, we invited friends from all over, for the christmas parties, a lot of people didn't come. lot of people were still afraid to fly. >> didn't come? >> afraid to fly. >> the plane. >> then the street got closed. was that when the street got closed? >> pennsylvania avenue was already closed. remember it was closed when the plane flew into the white house when president clinton was there, the little plane. >> is it closed now? >> it is closed now. >> we were thinking of opening it and then that happened and then we worked with michael, the same landscape architect that's doing the bush library over here, doing the landscaping for it, to then landscape

pennsylvania avenue so it didn't look like so much like a closed street. >> is that the one on the south lawn? >> pennsylvania avenue. the south street closes periodically but it is not closed always. >> isn't impossible to imagine in lincoln's time people could just walk into white house. they didn't even need a card. you are floating around and he is going between people to get to his office. they said he had this little passageway through -- what was his reception room into what's now the yellow living room. so he wouldn't have to go out in the hall upstairs in the second -- on the second floor, and where job seekers are -- people would be out there trying to shake the president's hand. >> wasn't it teddy roosevelt, who had so many children and he changed that. >> he built -- yeah. he didn't have enough bedrooms at the time when -- i was thinking when you were talking about the athletic activities, i was just reading, i am working on teddy roosevelt now. he took the ambassadors and

senators on these walks through rock creek park, really fast walks. fast walks. the rule was whatever you -- whatever you came across, you had to go straight through it. the ambassador from france is there. he has his gloves and his outfit. huffing and puffing. finally they get to a river. thank god it is over. then roosevelt says -- okay, let's undress. we are going. so they -- he said for the honor of france, i took off my clothes. but then he kept his lavender gloves on. and roosevelt said to him why did you keep your gloves on. he said we might meet ladies on the other side. >> speaking of that, roosevelt had all the animals as well. like mrs. coolidge did, too. talking about earlier with the story that the little boys brought their little pony upstairs. >> exactly right. exactly right. >> because that -- the animals are also a great comfort to you

in the paths you have. >> did millie really sleep in between you and your husband? >> are you kidding? where else would she sleep? we now have two little people in there. two little itty-bitty dogs. >> was it fun to write the book? about the white house, through the perspective? >> yes. i must say, the white house photographers really helped me. we would have -- schedule a day to go to the red room and hope nobody saw us because -- dogs are not allowed on the furniture. we placed her beautifully in the room. she lounged in the red room. she -- the photographers were fabulous about helping. that was very much fun. she made over a million dollars for charity. as george says, i worked all my life, got the highest job maybe in the world and my dog made more money than me. >> there is a very touching moment when, of course, fdr's

dog -- eleanor then took the dog over. and the dog was so used to hail to the chief that whenever it would be played when fdr was alive, he would get excited. at one point eisenhower came to visit eleanor after fdr was dead and the dog was so excited and thinking fdr was coming back. >> that's sad. >> please don't tell stories like that. >> fortunately barney and beasley never got that excited. >> i would like to point out that when your photographer talked about the children, patty and barney -- good luck. >> be careful. >> didn't one of you have to give diet restrictions? was that for ranger? >> ranger. >> everybody is trying to feed them. >> we discovered ranger had some ham or something and it had gone down to kitchen and the chefs put plates for dinner, low. he just went and helped himself for a while.

so he had a -- george put a thing on him. >> what about christmas in the white house? that must be a very special -- >> it is always really fun. we never spent actual christmas there. that was always at camp david because -- by the end of the parties were over and -- if you went to camp david, then the -- you know, the people that are there are posted there with their families. we would see them in the galley for christmas dinner and that way everyone got to stay home or be home for christmas, all the white house staff and everybody else. >> we should mention looking at lori firestone that we were so lucky with staff. lori worked for me for 12 years. she worked for me but really she worked for george bush because he would bypass the chief of staff. isn't that right? he would say, lori, we are having 40 for dinner tonight for a movie. can it just be informal? and -- she would arrange it. she did wonderful things.

but also, susan porter rose. the staff, carol powers, they were just fabulous. so i had them for 12 years. only lost one who got a better salary. but i hear from her. but -- they are still with us. >> some people have said that marriages get even stronger because you actually see the guy more than you might -- especially in the days when they are campaigning and gone. and then a lot of first family marriages have been stronger than other times. do you think that's so? >> well, i think, just the whole family really gets so close together. you always have an opponent in politics. so -- doesn't have to be your husband. >> i like you anyway. >> so do i. >> no. i think that there's something about politics when the world isn't against your husband, you think, at times for children.

our grandchildren, 17 plus four, are very close. i think it is because of politics. >> i can imagine. >> they are very close. very loving. i will say to pierce, oh, i haven't heard from marshall for a while. oh, i just talked to her yesterday. or they get the iphone which is >> evident leap you can talk forever for free. incidentally, marshall has just asked me to sign a picture for cane corso dog breeder. it is a dog about so big that can eat you up. it killed a woman. she's getting one. i signed it, but i didn't want to. >> what do you miss the most about the white house? >> i always say the chef. >> understandably. >> just like barb said, we miss all the people we work with. we see some still a lot.

it is great to see susan and for everybody that has come for this, first lady's conference. it's really the people. people that work with there, butlers and ushers and all the people you live with every single day. you miss the most. all the people that work for george in the west wing. >> i have moved 27 different times. and i have learned -- i don't miss anything. i loved them all. but my life is perfect as it is. >> that is so healthy. >> nobody ever said i was unhealthy. i really think you can't miss -- although, she's the chef was nice. but -- you just go on to other things. we have been so lucky. all the bushs have been lucky. life has been -- i mean, these libraries and these -- whatever center you call your thing,

anyway -- i know it's not a library. the people all come back. it is just -- we are very lucky. and we know it. and there are people who are hungry and people that are homeless. people that can't read. and, you know if you know somebody who is lonely, go see them. i mean, there's just a lot of things we can do because -- we can read. we are certainly well fed. we have lots of people we love. i love my in-laws. i have two here. perfect. i mean, look at them. we're lucky. >> you know, i think nothing could say better when you ask the question would people run for public office. the experience of both of you and your family and the dignity with which you carry both the offices and the time afterward suggests that it may be a tough vocation but it may be one of the best vocations in the world. politics still is and has to be

one of the most honorable vocations there are. we have got to reach a time of in this country again when our best people will be able to know what you two experienced. i mean, i know from reading your memoirs and from listening to you today, however difficult there may have been moments in time, everything was overshadowed by making a difference, by the excitement of being there, and the love of the families being together during it. i am so glad to have been able to share this with you. and you are both very much alive. >> thank you so much. >> thank you for having us. >> thank you to everybody. thank you so much. thank you. >> each weekend on american history tv on cspan 3. learn more about the presidents their policies and legacy throughs historic speeches and discussions with historians. this sunday, 8:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., a look at the presidency and civil rights,

through fdr, truman and eisenhower administrations. for more about programming, schedules and online video vi t visit -- cspan.org/history. i seem to have earned a certain place where people will listen to me and i have always cared about the country. and "the greatest generation" writing that book gave me a kind of a platform that was completely unanticipated. so i thought i ought not to squander that. so i ought to step up as a, not just as a citizen and journalist, but as the a father, a husband, and a grandfather. and if i see these things i ought to write about them and fry try to start this dialogue which i am trying to do with this book about where we need to get to next. >> unhtom brokaw urges americano redefine the american dream. and sunday, live, indepth your questions for the former anchor and managing editor of "nbc

nightly news." he has the writ any bout the greatest generation, the 1960s and today. indepth, sunday at noon eastern on cspan 2s, book-tv. social secretaries for former first ladies discuss their time in the white house and the impact their positions have played on setting the tone of the presidential administrations. all three worked in a war time white house. whether it was organizing a barbecue for lady bird johnson or exercising their diplomatic skills at state dinners. the secretaries were the right hands of their firir