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past anything that stands in its way. ...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. continues to mourn the passing of president george herbert walker bush who died last night at 94. his extraordinary life included fighting in world war ii, serving in congress, running the cia, and striking oil in congress before being president. his final words in bush 43, the son, he told his father he'd been a wonderful dad and he loved him.

bush 43 remembered his father today as, quote, a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. other former presidents who expressed their condolences today, decency, president obama said his service could never be matched although he would want us all to try. president trump has ordered the flags flown at half mast for 30 days to honor president bush. president trump has awe also declared a national day of mourning this coming wednesday. here's president trump this morning in buenos aires. >> spending three days of mourning and three days of celebrating a really great man's life. we look forward to doing that. and he certainly deserves it. he really does. he's a special person. i spoke with jeb and george today.

and we had great conversations and we discussed, actually, for quite some time the father, and how much they loved him and how much he loved them. >> preparations for the service honoring president george herbert walker bush are underway. of course, these things are planned years ahead. for more what to expect to turn to gabe gutierrez, who's in houston where the former president passed away last night. everybody is curious about this. how often in advance do we know about the plans for the parade, the national funeral, where it's going to be held, the lying in state, tell us if you can, about the prep. >> chris, this information as you mentioned is known for years. it's planned. but it's rolled out little by little over the coming days. we know that president trump says that air force one will be used to transport president bush's casket from houston to washington on monday where the casket will lie in state at the u.s. capital.

according to texas a&m university, mr. bush will be laid to rest on thursday on the grounds of his presidential library. but the tributes are pouring in from across the world and especially here in texas. texas is the place where president bush came as a young man, as an oil man and a pillar of this community in houston. i spoke to the mayor a short time ago who said he's planning his own celebration of life outside city hall here in houston on monday night. tributes pouring in from around the world but also texas as the city is in mourning right now. >> thank you so much, gabe. joining me now steve schmidt, former strategist who worked for george w bush's campaign. you know the family, the traditions of this family. >> it's a great american family. i think at the hour of his

death, george herbert walker bush, chris, had a claim to be the greatest living american. it's a life of unparalleled service. you look at the virtues that define his life, the youngest naval combat aviator in world war ii, 19 years old when he was shot down. look at his service to the country. look at the wisdom he demonstrated with the use of military force in panama and during the first gulf war, the wisdom of restraint over the soviet union collapse. the letters that show his decency, his kindness. this is an extraordinary american life. he's an american giant. i think history, as they evaluate this presidency, though it was one term, it took place in very, very turbulent times. consequential times and he was fearless in the execution of

this nation's foreign policy in those fraught times. >> you and i are political people. we admire and, in fact, go for charisma. that magical something that makes people love an fdr, reagan, jack kennedy. he didn't have that, i don't think. yet he had all the other aspects we want for a president. how do we figure that out where we go for what we think is the glittering object of charisma but we get service or non-service. in this guy's case we got service. >> i think he did have a type of charisma, chris. i think if you met him one on one, if you were in new hampshire or you were in iowa, you met him on the campaign trail, first time i ever met george herbert walker bush i was 17 years old, and our high school history teacher, bill morgan, had taken us to an event in the meadow lands where the vice president was speaking. here we were a group of high school students we had a table

towards the middle and we were asked to stay behind. the vice president came out, he was campaigning for president, obviously busy but he spent considerable time with us. i remember having the occasion when i worked for president bush to be lingering outside the oval office and being able to tell that story to president bush 41. he was a man of profound decency and over his 94 years of life, there are so many countless stories of it that'll be told over the next week. but he didn't have the movie star charisma of a kennedy or reagan. but people looked at the man who possessed the virtues of the greatest generation, a combat veteran, someone for whom it was important. he said he possessed more of the qualities of greatness and goodness. i think when we look at the life

of george herbert walker bush, those are words that could be applied to him. he possessed qualities of greatness and goodness. i think that's why you'll see over the next week an outpouring of grief but real joy in the celebration that awful of us as americans were able to live in the same life span as this great american. >> let me get to something tricky. it was his decision not to proceed into iraq but limit the mission of desert storm into liberating kuwait. i remember at the time because i was following it and reading about the chopping up of the iraq army, blood alley, all we were doing was killing people at that point, and he said he and colin powell blew the whistle on it, no we did our mission. i don't know how history is going to look at it. how do you look at that decision?

>> history is going to look at it as a very wise decision. look, in a couple years later in the second iraq war, the army chief of staff advised that we didn't have enough troops and he was fired. norman schwartz couv asked president bush for half a million forces, he didn't make the mistake that we went to war with the country's support overwhelming force, a clear objective to accomplish and an exit strategy. this is somebody who showed restraint. he showed great global coalition, the u.n. mandate was to remove saddam from kuwait, not iraq. when the mission was accomplished, president bush said later he thought saddam hussein would have fallen, he did not. we saw the furry release later,

the tribal violence, the religious hatreds and colin powell was right about that advice when he said we break it, we own it. we didn't break it the first time around. when you look at his foreign policy achievements with each and every one of them you see the quality of restraint. i think that restraint was forged in a wisdom of experience. and part of the crucible of his life experience was combat, being shot down, stranded in the pacific ocean, picked up by a submarine where his life was saved. he understood what it meant to order america's men and women into harm's way. >> you are something steve. you're the cheerleader for the best in the country. you're always great at this. >> thank you, chris. coming up, america as george herbert walker bush saw it. i'm going to talk to former senator chris dodd of connecticut about what it was like to serve in congress during

bush's tenure. >> no president, no government can teach us to remember what is best in what we are. america is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. we as a people have such a purpose today. it is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. k new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. whoo! i got my money! hard to contain yourself, isn't it? uh huh! let it go! whoo! get a dollar-for-dollar match at the end of your first year. only from discover.

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the strength of a democracy is not in beauracracy, it is in the people and their communities, in everything we do let us unleash the potential of our most precious resource, our citizens, our citizens themselves. >> that was president george herbert walker bush talking about the strength of our

democracy during his state of the union address back in 1991. joining us right now is a former democratic senator from connecticut, chris dodd who served in the congress during bush's presidency. you got up this morning, you heard about it? >> yeah. i liked him a great deal. a small state, everybody knows each other in a small state. my father lost to bush in the eisenhower landslide and he was elected two years later and they served together for some time in the senate. i got to know his brother, prescott in connecticut when he passed away, i wrote president bush a note to tell him i had a great relationship with his brother. i got a wonderful letter back from president bush. i got to know him on a number of issues. i served on not only his presidency but his vice presidency. >> what's the difference between the yanks and the irish. i'm serious. that family had a lot of old new england crust on it.

>> the earliest advocates for family planning and so forth came out of fairfield county in many ways. >> i didn't know that. i always looked at barbara bush, i said to her one night at the white house, you look pro choice to me. she said i don't care what i look like, i'm not talking. >> she was smart to answer your question that way. so was the old school going back, of course, to the civil war days, the moderate republicans, lincoln republicans and so forth never really changed over the years and still strong in that in new england politics. i'll tell you two quick anecdotes. one day he stopped me, i was driving the reagan administration on latin american issues. he said i can make one call to south america, tell me who i can call. i said that's a good question, let me think about it. a couple weeks later i said i thought about it, a president of

a tiny country, everybody trusts him down there, he's respected, if i can make one call he would be a good guy to talk to about what's going on. a number of months later i ran into sangoneti, president bush. i heard people say in the large foreign policy issues he was very present, but he was also present on the small stuff. he wasn't calling sangoneti to get a vote, he was developing a relationship with him. that's who he was, he was great at relationship building. when john tolliver was being considered as the secretary of defense, he asked me to join him -- >> you were going to vote for him anyway? >> it was a tough vote. >> but he backed your dad. >> he did, absolutely. but also president bush asked me to be for him. >> did he? >> yeah. >> that's nice.

>> i thought lieberman would be with you, then he changed. someone got to him. sam nunn got to him. do i know too much? >> you've been around too long. >> tell me the other story. >> just those two. the point, i sit in the prescott bush seat, each seat you can trace down the line, i gave vice president bush at the time a wonderful series of photographs of the various other senators that sat in his father's seat. he loved that, going back and knew his history in connecticut obviously he was living in texas and had come from texas at that point. it was a graciousness about him. obviously i'm sure i annoyed him on different votes during the years he was vice president and president. but never lost that sense of decency about him. always wanted to know how you were doing, your family were doing. gene mccarthy said the presidency should be an office of people of reputation come not

where you come to make a reputation. i always thought the model of that gene mccarthy saying was president george bush. >> he loved being in the people's house, he loved it in houston. you heard the story coming from the gym -- >> yes. and the house was a more college yal body. >> until newt came along. >> if he had been elected as senate, he might never have been president or vice president. so he may have been lucky to have avoided that office. >> i knew he stuck to his pals, he was skull and bones from ohio, another guy, a democrat he was close to, he also stuck with ross when he got in trouble -- >> i wouldn't be surprised at all. and allen simpson, close as well. >> he was a genuine friend. let's bring in george herbert walker bush on his relationship with president clinton, the man

who beat him, of course, in 1992 in that tough election. >> run against each other, you're enemies. we were friends before he beat me, before we ran against each other, and we've been friends afterwards. that's the way politics should be. but in something like this, the nice thing about it, it sends a signal around the world you can be political opponents and still work together for something more important than your own political future. i've enjoyed working with president clinton very, very much. i might make this pledge here, i'll never criticize him again. on politics. >> chris dodd, you're a pal of mine, i look up to you, i want you to do psycho analysis. i've been lucky to have a father, a real father we look up. not saying they're perfect, but we look up to them. bill never had a father like this. i think the guy next to him was like his father. i think he needed a role model

on decency and just being a man. >> i won't try to be a psycho analyst in this, but i think there's some merit in that statement. and he had great influence in showing bill on how to become a person after a presidency in many, many ways. i've thought a lot about it in the last 24 hours since we learned the news. i'm sure many people are struck by the comparisons without having to mention them on the show tonight, a person of tremendous reputation who understood the importance of working together to solve problems in the country and the generation, that post world war ii generation, they had their short comings but they worked on big issues, civil rights, voting rights act, medicare, education. >> put a man on the moon. >> yes. >> the marshall plan. >> yes. we have now battles over petty stuff. >> do you think it's because they had role models like churchi

churchill. >> you get shot out of an aircraft and get picked up by a submarine, at 19 he had a view of life very different. >> at 18 or 19. >> yeah. 18 years old, learns how to fly a plane and gets shot down, picked up in the pacific by a submari submarine. an incredible story. >> ben bradley said do you want what it's like to be a 21-year-old piloting a destroyer in enemy waters, do you know what that was like? let's listen to former president george herbert walker bush during his state of the union address in 1990, talking about the value of, what you said, decency. >> the state of the government does indeed depend on many of us in this very chamber. but the state of the union depends on all americans. we must maintain the democratic decency that makes a nation out of millions of individuals. i've been appalled at the recent mail bombings across this

country. every one of us must confront and condemn racism, anti-semiti anti-semitism, bigotry and hate. not next week, not tomorrow, but right now. every single one of us. >> any doubt in your mind about whether or not he meant that? >> no doubt. it's not something a speech writer put together for him. >> not at all. >> there was feeling there. and without saying a word right now it's exactly what we need. chris dodd, the senator from connecticut. the yanks got together. >> we got together. >> i got a copy of tom dodd for president from the 1964 convention -- >> i was there. we'll talk about it. >> i brought it home with me. i was a busboy. after the break, what it was like to work for george herbert walker bush, i'm going to ask his former chief of staff. >> i come before you and assume

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purpose. it's to allow us to pursue the better angels to give us time to think and grow. we're back now with more of our special, remembering the legacy of george herbert walker bush. joining me right now is john sununu, former chief -- there you are, former chief of staff to bush 41. now his son chris is also the governor of new hampshire. governor sununu thank you on this solemn night. tell us about working for president bush. >> i think we have a sound problem. we'll have to come back -- let's listen to president bush in his inaugural speech talking about how he would govern when he first took office. let's watch. >> no president, no government can teach us to remember what is best in what we are. america is never wholly herself

unless she is engaged in high moral principle. we as a people have such a purpose today. it is to make kinder the face of the nation and gent ller the fa of the world. >> let's bring in nicole wallace our colleague here, and john walter was on earlier, nicole we didn't know, the high audience you bring in every day in the afternoon, as if we don't know our audience, but you have a great one and a loyal one. tell me nicole -- you worked for w his son but you had access and friendship with the whole family. tell us about the family inside when you get to kennebunkport, what's it feel like inside? >> there's a small club of us who have worked for two of their sons. i worked for jeb bush first and then george w. bush, you had a

real privilege and honor of knowing barbara and president bush. and to be welcomed into their family wasn't about who you knew, it wasn't about how high you ranked in the white house or the governor's office in the case of jeb. it was really about the loyalty that you showed to their sons and their cause and their character. so if you were the real deal, and barbara bush and 41 sussed out the real deal more quickly and efficiently than just about anybody. you were welcomed into their lives and for a lot of us, welcomed into their home in kennebunkport, which wasn't glit si and sterile, it was warm and inviting. and every time i was there, there was a roomful of families and friends, democrats and republicans. and the visit included a walk around the house and a look at the pictures of president bush 41 with other world leaders. i mean, he was -- he lived his

legacy and he wasn't stuffy about it, he was accessible. i spent a lot of time with them in the summer of 2016 when the country was going through this really extraordinary presidential election and they were curious, interested, they were up on the news, and they were struggling as a lot of people were with where we were and where things were. but they were open and passionate and funny. and just as welcoming to everyone who had been a part of -- they also welcomed all the generations of their families. they loved their children, they loved their grandchildren, and they got to know their great grandchildren. >> you and i as journalists treasure transparency. so many presidents and their families had tensions, you can tell there's tensions there, secrets there, they don't want to be open, they're edgy about it, they're edgy with their staff people, but the bushes are well known to have gotten along

with their staff people, gotten along with the people working in the white house. is it old money? what explains -- really, what makes the complete happiness with who they are? >> you know, i think some of it is that -- you know, when i went to work for george w bush, karen hughes gave us these hungs ks o wood, you give them their unvarnished opinion. you could go up to any of them and say that wasn't good. they valued people that could give it to you straight. so you create an atmosphere where you do that where everyone is really frank and they could laugh at themselves and they -- you know, they were not too proud to admit when they screwed things up. so i think it just created a real ease. talking about transparency, the way it felt was accessibility, there was never a price to pay for being honest. there was only distance you

would put between yourself and any of the people you served if they thought you were afraid to be honest. they awarded frankness. 41 had a lot more affection for the media and his son. i interacted a little bit with 41, who would sometimes dispair about how hard the press was on his son. you and i used to go at it about the iraq war and other things, so it was almost generational. but 41 had unbelievable relationships in the press. he had close friends. he was a letter writer. 41 had a couple letters -- he was just -- i'm sure people have been talking about james baker. it was just this whole group of people who loved politics and loved the people in politics. >> so the good guys finish last or first? it doesn't matter. being a good guy is separate competition altogether. >> he finished both, he finished

first once, won, and last once, lost his reelection. i don't think there's a lesson about good guys. but when we see what we're dealing with, we cover it every day, it's a good group of guys. >> he talked to me, it was be nice to my son. he said nice things about my parents. i wrote "hardball" in '88, and he listed every page he was mentioned on, and he said having escaped unscathed i will read the rest of your book. he's president of the united states and he's taking time to do that stuff. >> that's such a good point. they were readers. they read everything, novels, history, books by people like you. they cared about everything that was covered. they cared and loved everything about our politics. and they cared and loved about people on the other side. to be at their house was never

about being at a gathering of the old republican club, it was always a bipartisan endeavor and all opinions were welcome. i remember one time ms. bush said to me, tell me about the third gun runniny running. i had to google it. they were so curious and welcome to everyone. >> you know who was like george senior and accepting criticism in the people around him, you won't believe this. john kerry. >> i believe it. >> he was open to people calling him john, telling him what they think. thank you so much it's great great to have you as a colleague. >> you're so generous, thank you my friend. >> let's bring in john sununu, mr. governor, chief of staff, father of a governor chris

sununu. one of my favorite former senators, john sununu. >> hi, chris. >> let me ask you about the boss. you were his chief of staff, filling in the role of the former great governor of eisenhower's period who became chief of staff, the governor of new hampshire at that time. your thoughts? >> i had the pleasure and honor of serving as chief of staff to the president. he was such a nice guy, it made my life a little bit harder because i had to be the bad cop. but he was a great man who had good vision, but never was seen to articulate it well enough to the press. but he handled his foreign policy issues superbly and i've been telling folks that he actually was a great domestic policy president. he passed more domestic legislation than any president except lyndon johnson and

franklin roosevelt. i remember when you would bring us small group of reporters in to understand the message -- you're laughing but it's a tradition. i have this belief now that waves come and go, and everybody takes it personally but there are times in history that everyone want to change, they want the new guy, no matter how bad he is, there are times he wants to get rid of the old guy no matter how good he is. what do you think about waves? i think he went out in a wave in "92? your thought. >> i think so, too. he was seen as doing great things in foreign policy. he had to run against a candidate that was strong on domestic policy and the public decided to change their priorities. churchill took care of england during world war ii and four months after the war they voted him out of office. >> you're right. in fact, churchill took six

losses in his career. during his campaign for president trump george bush made a promise that would come back to haunt him. let's watch. >> read my lips, no new taxes. >> governor, why did he make that hard promise? did he need to because he was seen as a more moderate republican than president reagan? >> well, i got nervous when i heard it. i didn't know it was coming. i was a governor, i knew they were always going to slip legislation to you with taxes and fees in it, and such an absolute statement made me nervous. i will tell you this, he honestly tried to fulfill that pledge. we negotiated for two years with the democrats and finally the president realized the country needed a five-year budget and the democrats wouldn't give it to him without taxes. he knew he was going to take a political hit but he did was best for the country. >> i think what he did set it up

for bill clinton -- >> created all the surpluses. >> and also it became fourth quarter of '92, bill clinton had nothing to do with fourth quarter of '92. >> it began, actually in the second quarter but nobody talked about it. >> it wasn't so clear as it was in the fourth quarter. it was very clear in the fourth quarter. how did he take it when he realized that he went back on his deal and other people in the party were going to come at him? >> he was upset when the republicans turned it down. the first package had a gas tax that hadn't been adjusted for a decade. but having lost the support of the republicans he had to swallow a lesser package from the democrats. he was upset but he was still trying to do the right thing for the country.

>> john sununu former chief of staff for president bush, former governor, father of a governor. i hope we have you on the show a number of times, as "hardball" goes up to cover -- it's hard to believe the new hampshire primary is coming. >> let's go to jonathan alter right now. this is interesting because it's a long time and time salves many wounds. that was a serious wound with him and the right wing. >> absolutely. you can argue that cost him reelection. you have to have a united party behind you in order to get re-elected. and, you know, pat buchanan is going after him, doing pretty well -- >> sure. >> -- in new hampshire. >> 37%. >> he's getting hit my newt gingri gingrich. so he got hammered. part of it was his own making because what he called voodoo economics, then under reagan

bought into this kind of discredited idea now, discredited by history, that you can cut taxes, raise defense spending and balance the budget. this was this mythology and there was a tax cutting fever that took over the republican party and he got caught in the cross currents and wasn't strong enough politically to resist it, starting when he was vice president. he should have stood up more strongly, i think that hurt him. his domestic record just wasn't good enough for a country that was in some economic trouble, and he didn't seem like he had a vision of the future. what he called the vision thing. and so when bill clinton came along and really spoke to people's economic pain and said, you know, i feel your pain, that was just going to be a much more compelling message for the electora electorate. >> sure. more sensory. let me ask you about the architecture for peace. that was a phrase he used, i remember back then, and really that's what we're missing today.

we have the g-20 meeting down in buenos aires now, he was about building the architecture, even the arab league was with him when we went to war, the iraq war, the gulf war, he had the checkbook powers, japan, russia, germany paying the price of the gulf war because he put it together. >> the greatest generation, if you're a republican, they were coming out of pre-war isolationism, and these guys were internationalists, they believed in international organizations. and what they called collective security. and that collective security, that idea, has kept us from having another world war since -- you know, since 1945. we've had a lot of small wars but we haven't had a big one. and that's because of these international arrangements that bush and other american presidents fostered. and that's the risk right now

that this architecture as you called it, is being disassembled. that's a very, very dangerous thing for the world. this idea of america first. which is a pre-world war ii idea. george bush stood in total opposition to that idea of america first. it was about all of us in the west together, protecting the peace and making sure that, you know, dictators or communists were checked. >> very well said. thank you. coming up more -- thank you, jonathan. more on the legacy of george herbert walker bush. stay with us. not long ago, ronda started here. and then, more jobs began to appear. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. discover.o. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee.

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mr. bush, considering the problems that some of your predecessors have had as head of the cia, what moved you to take on the job? >> well, i said this at the senate hearings and perhaps the

times a little cynical, people may not understand this, i felt a sense of duty, a sense of obligation, i was asked to do it without great background, chance to debate it, i was in china at the time, and i feel if you're called on to serve, you ought to serve. >> that was george herbert walker bush in 1974 explaining why he took the job of cia director. i'm joined against by the former head, john mclaughlin, who worked at the agency under george herbert walker bush, he's also an msnbc global affairs analyst. you know those of us who have watched home front. we get a sense of the culture over there. bethi we think it's the culture of all the spies. what's the worry a guy gets when they're named to be dci, is there a fear that comes with that job? because of what you're going to

be told? how much you're going to know? >> i don't think that's the fear. most people look forward to that part of it. they think they're going to have the lid lifted off -- >> the crowen jewels. >> the crown jewels. i think the sobering realization is when something goes wrong in the world, if you haven't foreseen it, you will be held responsible. someone asked bob gates if they would ever abolish the cia. and he had a humorous answer he said hell, no. there would be no one left to blame. it's not that you're seeking to avoid blame all the time because that's a losing strategy but you are aware you have the responsibility to foresee things that no one has ever done perfectly in history and that you'll be held responsible. >> another movie i watched during my break, i watched the series "looming tower" and having to predict 9/11 and the

pressure on something like that. >> that's a series i would strongly argue with many of the points in it. but the bottom line, as you suggest, is when something like 9/11 happens, you can look back and point to the things you did right but fundamentally if you didn't catch it, you have to stare it in the face and say we missed that, how could we have gotten it? what could we learn from it? >> why is it considered -- >> a cia director can't be defensive, they have to say what can we learn from this? >> how is cia director a political graveyard. a lot of people considered he was given that job to get him out of the way. >> at that time it was considered a graveyard because it had been in trouble politically, it was through congressional hearings that things were brought out, things to assassinate and bug

americans, that's all history now, the heart of the cold war, and it was very controversial. someone going in there, that was placed on them. but he overcame that. >> thank you very much john peo. up next, the incredible love story, a little schmoltz now, appropriately. >> you both married the first person you ever kissed? >> strange, i admit. >> still staying with your story? >> yes, i am. >> who is this other man in mrs. bush's life. >> there's no man, believe me. i had a beau but george just feels jealous, that's all. i am all about living joyfully. the united explorer card hooks me up. getting more for getting away. traveling lighter. getting settled. rewarded.

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♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ as one of the nation's largest investors in infrastructure, we don't just help power the american dream, we're part of it. this is our era. this is america's energy era. nextera energy. i kissed barbara, and i'm glad of it. i don't believe she'll ever regret it or resent it. certainly not ashamed of it. >> that was president george herbert walker bush talking about the first time he kissed the love of his life. lester holt takes a look back at the touching love story of george and barbara. >> reporter: their love story began at a christmas dance in 1941 when they were just teens. >> i could hardly believe he was

so beautiful. >> reporter: within 18 months, they pledged they'd be together for life. >> she's unbelievable. and very strong. a very strong person. and yet, very loving. >> reporter: world war ii separated the couple, they started writing love letters. >> i love you, precious, with all my heart. to know you love me means my life. >> reporter: during their life together they never stopped. >> little did i know i was only trying to keep up -- keep up with barbara pierce from onandaga street in rye, new york. i love you. >> i love you too. >> their remarkable partnership spanned seven decades and their love lives on through their five children, 17 grandchildren, and seven great grandchildren. barbara bush said she chose him for a simple reason. >> because he made me laugh. it's true, sometimes we laugh through our tears, but that shared laughter has been one of

our strongest bonds. >> here, mrs. bush saying her husband was the only man she had ever kissed. >> strange, i admit. >> still staying with your story? >> their love lasted a lifetime. >> i've always felt i was the world's luckiest woman. >> reporter: their love story endures for all time. >> nobody ever had a greater, more precious family. nobody ever had a better husband. >> that was nbc's lester holt, of course, reporting, that's all for now. i'm chris matthews, join me weekdays at 7:00 eastern for hardball. it's a little different than this. up next, george herbert walker bush, a life of service. liberty mutual accident forgiveness

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last year there was only a tiny sense of time left, this year i must convinced i'm more aware of that, no fear, no apprehension, just a feeling like let's go, there's so much to do and there may not be a lot of time left. >> a man who devoted to his country. >> member of congress, u.n. ambassador, republican party chairman, envoy to china, cia director, vice president to ronald reagan and 41