is your private space, the private apartment. i did not bring furniture because i knew there was wonderful furniture to choose from to decorate with and use upstairs. i did bring one chest of drawers that belong to george's grandmother. that was for sentimental reasons. and as soon as we got there, we went and picked out everything and tried them out in spots to see if you wanted to keep them at see if they wanted to be recovered and we got things recovered. that was private money. money that goes in the white house historical association. it is a big foundation. it was started by jackie kennedy.

first ladies since then have raised money for the white house historical association. so that you are not spending government money when you recover a chair for the white house. that was the second and third floor, all of the bedrooms, a lot of little bedrooms and the solarium that we all love. the sunroom that is up there. it was added maybe in 1927. that is where the girls would have parties. the first two rooms i did for the girls' bedrooms. two lovely bedrooms right down the hall from the president's bedroom. other children would've used. they belong to chelsea clinton and little john kennedy and

caroline kennedy had used and glendon and lucy johnson had used. they were perfect for barbara and jenna. i put into double beds so they can invite a girl so eight girls could stay in those suite of rooms. that happened a lot. they were freshmen in college. they never really lived there, but they stayed there. their friends would come to visit or for weekends or holidays. >> what renovations did you initiate at the white house? >> we worked on the lincoln bedroom which was so much fun and so interesting and i worked with the white house historical association advisory board which is art curators and furniture experts and wallpaper experts. historians.

that is how i got to know bud. he is the director of the new african-american smithsonian museum that is going up right now on the mall in washington. that was really great to know him like i did working on all of those rooms. i know he loved working on the lincoln bedroom. the lincoln bedroom when he lived at the white house was actually his office. until teddy roosevelt built the west wing which he just did to get out of the house because yet had the wild kids upstairs, the president's office on the second floor at the far end of the hallway from the president's bedroom. when the lincoln lived there, the room was his office. the room he signed the

emancipation proclamation in and after truman restored, he moved all of the furniture associated with lincoln, the big bed. and the other pieces of furniture that mary todd lincoln had ordered. he moved them to that space which been lincoln's bedroom. we redid it. we had a little square about this big of wallpaper that have been in the room when it was his office. we reproduced it. we knew we had the bill of sale of the carpet that had been bought at the time that lincoln lived there. we went to the same place in england which had done in the carpet for him and we do not know for sure which of the patterns they had sold. we do not really have a picture of it. but we knew on the bill of sale, it is go which the curator thought meant green and oak. we went and had that done.

>> what did we not know about the first lady and her role you think the american public should know? >> the public sees the first lady in glamorous circumstances, state dinners in a beautiful gown. a speech where the heads are in suits or whatever. what they may not imagine looking at the white house from the outside is it is actually a very normal life upstairs on those two floors that are the white house residence. first ladies probably, and i would, lie on the couch and read books. my cat would curl up next to me. the great palladium window associated with the west side of the white house. the one you see.

it is wonderful to sit at the window and the late afternoon when i was waiting for george to come home from work. it is a nice couch to lie on. >> mrs. bush, there was a speech you made in 2005, april of 2005 you are well known for. it came as surprise to everybody. how long was that in the planning? >> george always said he is delighted to come to these, baloney. [laughter] >> the famous dinner where george says everybody comes in and makes fun of the president and he came and made fun of himself. he is very funny. he has been very funny at every one of those corresponded dinners. there's the gridiron dinner and

alfalfa dinner and lots of dinners for the presidents. he has to have a funny speech and make fun of himself. that year, he said, i cannot come up with another joke. why don't you do it? i said, okay. >> did you say ok right away? >> yes. i knew i would work with the joke writers. it was funny and shocking to people. i remember i was sitting next to the president of the white house correspondents who obviously did not know i was quick to spring that. george stands up and tries to make a lame joke and i jump up and say, no. when i did it, the people were sitting by me gasped. they were shocked.

they thought something was wrong that i was jumping up like that to the podium. it was fun. that is when i called myself a desperate housewife. everybody knows that is a roast and that is what everybody at the white house correspondents dinners are like. make it for the president. the people from overseas were shocked. when we would travel overseas, some world leader would say, are you a desperate housewife? >> i am married to the president of the united states and this is our typical evening. [laughter] 9:00, mr. excitement is sound asleep. [laughter] and i am watching "desperate housewives." [laughter] [applause]

with lynn cheney. [laughter] ladies and gentlemen, i am a desperate housewife. [laughter] i mean if those women on that show think they are desperate, they ought to be with george. [laughter] >> you compare your mother in law the don corleone in that speech. [laughter] >> exactly. you have to ask her. [laughter] >> you talked about the first lady being seen glamorous and etc., are we too obsessed with your hair and makeup and clothing? >> yes. for sure. i do not think we will get around it. maybe when we have a first gentleman. critique the way they look all the time. their choice in tie or their hairstyle or whatever.

or maybe their weight. what is your advice for the first gentleman? >> stand back and be quiet. i don't know. it would be interesting when it happens with the first gentleman. i hope that will take on men's health. >> in your book, you call this a parlor game. if you had disagreement on policy with the president, how'd you get that across or would you? >> i would, of course. i would tell him, the parlor game part is to find out, the press try to know, what did you think about it and how does that differ from your husband thinks? my answer was always, i am not the one, you did not elect me. i do not have to tell you what i think about an issue. on the other hand, there's plenty of debate on all the

issues. i do not have to be one of the people debating the president. and i think that is really the case, very few times do you see a spouse of the president, you know, making public her disagreements with the president. >> you do write in your memoir before the election season, i talked to george about not making gay marriage a significant issue. >> i did. i did not tell anyone at the time. i did write about it. >> should the first lady receive a salary? >> i do not think so. there are plenty of perks, believe me. a chef. that was really great. i miss the chef. i do not think so. i think the interesting question really is not should they receive a salary but should they

be able to work for a salary at their job that they might have already had? i think that is what we will have to come to terms with. certainly, a gentleman might continue to work or whatever he did. that is really the question we should ask. should she have a career during those years her husband is president? in addition to serving as first lady. >> were you ready to leave washington? >> not really. i loved it. i loved living in the white house. it was a privilege. so interesting to live there. a history lesson every single day. it is so beautiful. you might not know this but the white house has a magnificent art collection.

to be able to live with that kind of art, it was a pleasure. i loved that. on the other hand, you know that four years later, the term is up. there's a certain acceptance that comes with that that made me anticipate a normal life again. and a life back in dallas where we had lived when george was elected governor. i started coming down here looking for houses to buy before we left the white house. i started to anticipate what that house would be like and what it would be like to live there and furnish it all of the things i would like to do. and started think about building this, the presidential library. i invited all of the heads of the libraries to camp david and none of them had ever been there. they do not know the president whose library they work in. only the most recent presidents,

did they actually know the president. none of the foundation heads had ever been to camp david. i invited them to come to our camp to see what it was like. the first presidential library was franklin roosevelt. he was the one who first used camp david. if they saw camp david and we have lunch together and they see the lodge where you have all of the meals, they will be forthcoming. they were. i said to give me advice. they had a lot of advice. they talked about what you would need to do to get things in your archives. and how you can help nar. they own and administer all of the papers of the president.

and what you could do when you are building the library to make sure you do not have to go back and retrofit because of the rules that nar has. that was fun. it made me look forward to building and working on this. the dean of yale architecture school and i would pick our other architect who is the landscape architect i used went for the re-do of pennsylvania avenue. it was closed when we moved in. it was already closed. when president clinton was president, we were getting ready to open back up when september 11 happened. we knew that pennsylvania avenue would stay closed.

i knew of a project he had worked on wellesley. he used native plants. i knew that is what i wanted to do on the grounds. i already started working each of those committees. the design committee for the library and the other directors and foundations members. i started to anticipate what the next part of my life would be like. i say in speeches that are now we're our living the afterlife and the state george calls the promised land. that is what texas is to us. we love it here. it is great to be back home. >> you've been very active in the library, in getting it started. what about when you are invited to speak or contribute to a political cause? >> i do speak. i am on the speaker circuit. i speak all over.

i had a speech in germany last year. a lot of people from all parts of the world as well. i choose which groups to speak to. ones that are doing a really great job in speaking to a lot of foundations of various types. this week i spoke in fort worth to a group that does work with abused and neglected children that work with the cps and other law enforcement to help children. and so i speak to all different types of groups. i have not really entered the political fray at all and i did host a luncheon for ann romney. that was private. it was not in the press. it was reported in the press that i had the luncheon but it was not a press event.

george and i both, as you know, he has chosen not to speak up politically because he does not want -- he does not think it is great for former presidents to be second guessing the choices that the president is making. >> three final questions. africa. a choice you made to continue your activity. >> and that is right. through the bush institute we have chosen to work on the policy areas the most important to us when he was president. that is education, the economy. george is working on a free market trying to promote free enterprise and a free-market economy. global health. the plan for aids relief that george started when he was president. he has a special program to

support the men and women of the united states military and i am chairman of the women's initiative and we have done really terrific fellowship programs to bring women from arab spring countries to the united states to work on leadership skills and to be paired with an american woman that is in their same profession. with the idea of how you build a civil society that you needed to support a democracy. we inherited all of the things that support our democracy and institutions like free press or independent judiciary. all of these countries do not have that. it takes a very long time to build those types of institutions that allow you to support a democracy and allow democracy to flourish. that is one of the things we are

doing with the women's initiative. our global health initiative is pink ribbon, red ribbon. we added the testing and treatment for cervical and breast cancer to the aids platform that was launched all over africa. many people in africa are hiv-positive and are taking anti-retrovirals drugs due to the generosity of the american people. they are living with aids. women are dying for cervical cancer which is the leading cancer death of women in africa. cervical cancers are preventable. there's a vaccine for the virus that causes cervical cancer. in the united states, you rarely hear of cervical cancer because when found early, it is easy to remove cervical lesions by

cryotherapy or scraping. we have been to africa three times since we have been home. we will go again i am sure this summer. women are getting tested for cervical cancer because they know somebody who has died from cervical cancer. that has been very interesting. a good way to spread a great work of the aids platform that george started. >> you met with michelle obama. >> that is right. we hosted a conference that happened to be when the obamas were there which was great. it is also very important, worldwide for people around the world to see our presidents together. that is what they saw here when all of the presidents came for the opening of the library.

george and i were meeting with the ethiopian health minister right after we came home. that night we were in washington because all the presidents were common to pay tribute to president bush for his points of light foundation. the last big fundraiser for points of light. and so i told the ethiopian prime minister that we were going to be there and president obama was going to send a video. he said, you do not know. you do not know what that means to the rest of the world. when you see all of the american presidents together, it is a solidarity. the unity of the idea. i think is a good example for the rest of the world for stock that is what it was.

that is when michelle obama could come and be with us for the first ladies conference and also when president bush and president obama laid the wreath together. >> do you feel a sorority with the other first ladies? >> absolutely. we talk about how our girls are doing. and what you have worked on. also, when i am with hillary clinton or any of the other first ladies. >> you mentioned meeting michelle obama. what is the first lady initiative? >> our chance to work with first ladies around the world to talk about the way first ladies can use their platforms worldwide. we have had for a number of years and the united states, you all know this, very active and involved first ladies who support their husbands and their