george w. bush, which includes the 43rd president's response to the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. this was included in the c-span book, "the presidents" a compilation of interviews with noted historians. mr. bush ranked 33rd in the survey of presidential leadership. ♪ >> this week on "q&a," james mann talks about his biography of president george w. bush. brian: james mann, author of the biography on george w. bush, if a friend of yours who had never met george w. bush asked you to tell you about him, what would you say? james: i would say he was a guy who was the son of a president, had trouble dealing with that fact for the first 40 years-plus of his life and then got his own personal life together enough to be a quite successful and shrewd politician to be elected governor of texas, and then became president of the united states. the first thing he would be known for then at the time of his presidency now and forever more will certainly be the fact that he was president at

i wrote a book that covers the george w. bush administration called "rise of the falcons" and i moved to johns hopkins international studies and have written there ever since. >> so here's some video. it's very brief. it's from 1988, george w. bush is here in this town working for his father in april of 1988. it's a short interview that we did with him. i just wanted you to hear him talk about texas. >> it's a state that encourages growth and it's got a certain sense of pride to it that i like. i just happen to think that texas has got problems, although it's growing out of them. but the opportunities in that state are just enormous and i'm a person who is always seeking opportunity. >> that was 1988. what was george w. bush doing during the campaign and what do you think he was thinking at that point about his own future in politics? >> very interesting question. it's a continuation of the story i told about lee atwater and mistrusting him, because george w. bush at that point, he kind of was out of the oil business. he was rela

brian: james mann, author of the biography on george w. bushif a friend of yours who had never met george w. bush asked you to tell you about him, what would you say? james: i would say he was a guy who was the son of a president, had trouble dealing with that fact for the first 40 years-plus of his life and then got his own personal life together enough to be a quite successful and shrewd politician to be elected governor of texas, and then became president of the united states. the first thing he would be known for then at the time of his presidency now and forever more will certainly be the fact that he was president at the time of the september 11th attacks and chose to wage a war in iraq that turned out to be a disaster. brian: what were his early years like? james: well, he followed in his father's footsteps and i say that quite literally, because he was forced almost to go to prep school at andover. he went to yale. he did many of the things his father did. it really in his mind, i think, it was not him. he once said many years later the

he talks about his biography of president george w. bush. >> james mann a third of the biography on george w.. bush if a friend of yours who had never met george w. bush and asked about him what would you say? >> i would say that he was a guy that was his son of a president. he had trouble dealing with that fact for the first 40 plus years of his life. then he got his own personal life together enough to be a quite successful and true pa laetitia to be elected governor of texas, and then became the president of the united states. the first thing he would be known for at the time of his presidency and forever more with the fact that he was the president during the time of the september 11th attacks. he chose to wage a war in iraq that turned out to be a disaster. >> what were his early years like? >> he followed in his father's footsteps. i see that quite literally, because he was forced almost to go to prep school. he went to yale. he did many of the things that his father dead. in his mind it was not him. he once said many years later ther

you talk about -- and of course you wrote a a whole book on the vulcans from the aides around george w. bush early in 2004, but how much of what george bush became was the fact you point out he has a lot of people around him that used to work for his father, and how long did it take for him to change that? >> i think -- you know, i thought it took well into -- it took into his second term for him to change that. so, if you go back to his 2000 campaign and taking office in 2001, first of all, he gets attacked politically during the campaign for not knowing enough about foreign policy. i mean, here is al gore, who's been the vice president, he was a foreign policy specialist before that, bush has been governor of texas, the only foreign policy he's done, as he would joke -- he would joke about his experience with mexico, but that's about it. and so he gets attacked for not knowing much, and he says, well, i don't -- he doesn't say i don't have to know much, but he says i have the finest group of foreign policy advisers around. and by that he's talking about this group, the vulcans, who are bas

the george w. bushhite house was just absolutely feckless and failed in the face of that disaster. the president had hired a handpicked head of fema away from his previous job, which was that he was the judges and stewards commissioner for the international arabian horse association. the day katrina hit, michael brown sent an email to another fema official that said, can i quit now? can i come home? a few days into the disaster, he wrote to friends, quote, i'm trapped now. please rescue me. the head of fema as 2,000 americans were dying. it was all hilarious. mostly mr. brown blamed everybody else. he liked in particular to blame the governor of the state of louisiana and the mayor of new orleans, saying amid a backdrop of 2,000 dead and dying americans, quote, if the mayor doesn't have the resources to get the poor, the elderly, the disabled, those who cannot out, or if he doesn't have the police capacity to enforce a mandatory evacuation to make people leave, then you end up with the kind of situation

in year 2000, the country elected, barely and arguably, george w. bush to be president of the united states. in 2004, the country re-elected george w. bush to be president of the united states. you know how we got a charismatic, young democrat who had only served a half term in the u.s. senate and would be the nation's first african-american president to be elected president in the united states of america in the election after those two? in part, we got barack obama elected in 2008 because of this having gone so wrong in the presidency of george w. bush. because, in 2005, while a great american city drowned, this was president george w. bush looking down on it from 30,000 feet. the perspective on the ground, at the time, was one that would have led you to know that, ultimately, that would be nearly 2,000 americans dead. the george w. bush white house was just absolutely failed in the face of that disaster. the president had hired a handpicked head of fema away from his previous job, which was that he was the judges and stewards commissioner for the inte

in 2011 the nation elected barely and arguably george w. bush the president of the united states. in 2004 the country re-elected george w. bush to be president of the united states. you know how we got a charismatic young democrat who only served a half term in the u.s. senate and would be the nation's first african-american president to be elected president in the united states of america in the election after those two, in part we got barack obama elected in 2008 because of this having gone so wrong in the presidency of george w. bush. because in 2005, on great american city drowned, this was george w. bush looking down at it from 30,000 feet while the perspective on the ground at the time was one that would have led you to know that ultimately there would be nearly 2,000 americans dead. george w. bush white house was just absolutely feckless and failed in the face of that disaster. the president had hired a handpicked head of fema away from his previous job, which was that he was the judges and steward commissioner for international arabian horse association. oh. the day katrina

what he did note of george w. bush was in assumption a lot of cartoonists made early in his election and presidency. that the president is stupid. cartoonists who got to live longer came around on that and decided that he was not a stupid president. but at this point, that's how herb block is depicting him. as under the control of dick cheney and his father. ignorant about world affairs. this particular cartoon was actually drawn during the 2000 presidential election. as you can see in the last year and a half of his life, again the ideas are solid. he's coming up with an opinion. and he's able to see a way to express it. he is using -- with his pen. the white house as an institution, as a substitute for the sitting president, appears quite frequently in his cartoons when he wants to talk about policy rather than personality. that can be the white house in conflict with congress, because there are separate parts of government. he brings that up in some of his cartoons. it can also be the supreme court, i haven't brough

george h.w. bush, bill clinton, and george w. bush and include barack obama's 2008 election. the university of virginia's miller center hosted the event. >> we're going to get started here with round two of presidents on whom olyphant was able o bestow his gifts and a country on which he was able to bestow his gifts by commenting visually and with words on those presidents. i'm mike nelson. i'm the guy you had to put up with during the first panel. fortunately we have a new cast of people to add their voices to the wonderful voices you heard from the scholars on the first panel. once again we have miller center people here and the miller center, one of its main emphasis is the focus on studying the presidency in depth, historical depth, with objectivity. in other words we're all in the business of doing stuff that an editorial cartoonist is not which is reacting to events on a day-to-day basis as pat oliphant did more than 10,000 times in his 60 plus years as a newspaper cartoonist. we all strive to be as objective as we can but the job of the editorial cartoonist and pat as

what he did note about george w. bush was an assumption a lot of cartoonists made early in the election and early in his presidency, and they drew him as stupid. now, cartoonists who got to live longer came around on that and decided that he wasn't a stupid president. but at this point, that's how herb block is depicting him as under the control of dick cheney and his father. and ignorant about world affairs. and this particular cartoon was actually drawn during the 2000 presidential election. and as you can see, in the last year and a half of his life, that mr. block, again, the ideas are solid. he's expressing an opinion. he's come up with an opinion. and he's able to conceive of a cogent way to express it. but the drawing style is a lot weaker. he's using that when he can't correct the errors with his pen. so, the white house as an institution, as a substitute for the sitting president appears quite frequently in mr. block's cartoons when he wants to talk about policy, rather than personality. and that can be the white

i knew president george w. bush very well. when -- george h w bush very well.hen president clinton came in i got to know him, not on a personal level. but i spoke with him and hillary clinton when she was first lady, then when she was senator of new york and secretary of state, no doubt about that, eight years of that. then when george w. bush came in, i had met them originally when he was a staffer in the white house with his father. and we struck up a very good relationship, and i think that that was one of the reasons why or sent me to africa in 2002 f the purpose of determining the feasibility of developing a transformat might hiv-aids in the developing world. so i got to be quite close with president george w. bush, related not only to the fact that i knew him through his father, but the fact that he took a very keen interest in global hiv-aids and allowed me to be one of the architects of the program, which has now transformed hiv globally. now that president obama is still quite interested and quite amenable to getting involved in solving the problems th

david: i guess a few years back, when president george w. bush president, he asked you to come to the oval office and asked you what you could do about hiv and aids in africa. and what did you tell him? dr. fauci: well, he sent me to africa to do a fact-finding and come back with the feasibility of doing something because he said, and told me, that he felt that, as a rich nation, we have a moral responsibility, now that we can have drugs that can treat and prevent infection, that other individuals, who because of where they live, they don't have access to that, and they're essentially die from a disease merely because of where they were born and raised, i.e., in the developing world. so, he sent me to africa to figure out, can we actually give treatment, care, and prevention? and we put together a program called the president's emergency plan for aids relief, or pepfar. and that's probably one of the most important parts of the george w. bush legacy, because that has saved now about 14 -15 million lives, thus far, and more coming, merely by provi

now, finally, in the george w. bush administration let me get to cheney has a theory, his own theory of what changed when schoolcraft is saying cheney change, scowcroft i'm sorry, chaney's responses, what change was september 11, september 11 changed everything. schoolcraft was in an office when the united states was attacked and that's his self image of himself, the record shows that is not true, things changed and the conflicts between cheney and powell began really in the first weeks of the administration. they took different positions on north korea, they took different positions on climate change in the kyoto accord, the united states started moving to pull out of international treaties that powell really did not want to pull out of, so commented and start with september 11 and what developed was a battle between what i call in the book the two tribes. these guys there wasn't just two people, these guys each had tribes of officials that developed an intense dislike of each other. there is one commentator who called

the panel today, this afternoon, which will cover the presidents from george bush i don't use the h. w. he was george bush when he was president. when john quincy adams became the president, john adams did not have to change his name. and his immediate georges bush is immediate successor bill clinton, and george w. bush, the one who came next and then finally we sort of dipped our toes into the obama presidency part of which we were able to capture in his cartoons we will see one example pad all offense great gifts as a sculptor unfortunately we only get to seed into dimensions. it is an extraordinary work one of our panelists, mary kay carey, can tell us something about that sculpture and about the president who it portrays american is a senior fellow at the center. she has been teaching this year at the politics department at the university she was a speech writer and a communication specialist of all sorts in 1988 and then and george bush presidency, if philip, former director of the miller center and a member of the history department here, held prominent positions and both bushes

had problems speaking we can agree peter that jawbone george w. bush looks like you know more raider george w. bush will take in order to joe biden ok let's go to jan that's going to jenna new york what was hang on it's going to come on no no doesn't listen heard it was that he couldn't speak don't. go ahead go ahead. jason is absolutely wrong here if you want to suggest that debates don't matter ask mike bloomberg what happened and the bad i mean look mike bloomberg should have never agreed to be on the stage. this isn't that bad debate. look no but look at debate that proves that debate elizabeth warren became the defacto moderator of that debate debates do matter it's a it's an unscripted moment anything could happen on the debate stage i generator for a presidential debate for a major t.v. network and look if you think debates don't matter look back at the aug 2015 debate where meghan kelly went up against donald trump he ended up winning that he won every debate since that he became the nominee because of it so debates do matter they might not mat

look, step back, president george w. bush threw his homeland security adviser fran townsend did extensive work to prepare for pandemics. preoccupation of president bush. president obama dealt with ebola, left behind a pandemic preparedness position. the obama team briefed the trump team when they were taking office about the risks of a pandemic. you had the trump hhs did a huge pandemic preparedness exercise that showed that they weren't prepared. all of that preceded what happened with covid-19 and peter navarro. now we know someone as close to the president as peter navarro, he's very close to him, was warning in january that the u.s. population lacked immune protection from this virus and that put millions of lives at risk. he sharpened that warning in february at a time when the president was downplaying the risk, saying this was under control. so the idea that the trump white house did not know how bad this could get, when people like peter navarro, not to mention alex azar and tony fauci and others within the government

next up, george w. bush. 20th spot. will be interesting when we do the next survey at the end of the trump presidency if whether george w. bush moves up at all. he passed away. we had three days of celebration in this country of presidency and the reminds of things he encompassed. that hasn't impact our historians, too. bill clinton we just talked about in 15th place. george w. bush, 33rd. the first time we had him right after he left office, he was one point lower. we added another president so he went up one. only other certainly you reaction to 9/11 is an important part, but economic crisis, the ones that ensued after 9/11 and response to hurricane katrina are all things overtime. we'll see how historians late his presidency. finally, barack obama, his debut in the survey, he came in 12th place. not a bad place to start. so here are a couple of more. here are the top five in 2017. dwight eisenhower, as we talked before, made it into the top five for the first time. theodore roosevelt in fourth place in this survey. t

to mark the tradition, we will feature past speeches from george clinton, george bush george w. bush, and barack obama. correspondents dinner speeches, tonight, on c-span and c-span.org, or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> thank you for being with us for this conversation about how we respond. i am so thankful that you all are with us for our first virtual

brian: james mann, author of the biography on george w. bushif a friend of yours who had never met george w. bush asked you to tell you about him, what would you say?

from our q&aam series, james mann talks about his book on george w. bush. this interview was included in c-span's 2019 book, "presidents, " a compilation of interviews with historians. 23rd int bush ranked our most recent survey of presidential leadership. ♪ >> this week on "q&a," james mann talks about his biography of president george w. bush. brian: james mann, author of the biography on george w. bush, if a friend of yours who had never met george wbu

ok frank luntz george w. bush you can't like donald trump very much as a republican does he campaign for him. i don't believe he does i don't believe the bush family gets involved i think the blood was so bad between them in 2016 and it's very difficult for the president to get essential to get on his knees and ask for his support or ask for mitt romney support i think trump is going to he's become the leader of the republican party he's become the most. the most sought after spokesman his rallies up until when he couldn't do them anymore were still very very well attended and are still very intense i think charm goes it alone and that may be a mistake on his part but i can't see him standing on stage with w. and i can see him standing on stage with the most recent nominee mitt romney. that's going to hurt him badly isn't it because they certainly mean votes well i know that. i look at michelle obama and i know that she means votes among women i know that any of us see can be very helpful to joe biden among voters

the george w. bush presidential center hosted this event. >> here at the bush center, of course, we have a wonderful relationship with our partners at smu, and it's so nice to have smu president dr. gerald turner and his wife, gayle, here with us tonight. we're grateful to all of our

was a very george w. bush moment. so he may be president next. deal know the story. very quickly. in the presidency. this pretty bull thing to do. so he bites will ferrell the more michael to come out of the library in dallas. and there sitting around backstage before the gone. an sentiment is pretty easy for y'all. this agreement mr. president. i give you your teacher e. [laughter]. and i look at each other in the state should we tell him. mr. president we made that up. english was crushed. because they thought is that it. and then he said we didn't make this. you underestimated it. [laughter]. so what did you say it was pretty. tim: when i was trying to say in my louisiana language in my native tongue was. jon: with a simultaneous translator. tim: one of the songs that i notice when i think that no matter what audience i am singing to come is what i do a song live like you are dying. and then some really one of the songs that i feel like an very privilege didn't last to be the vessel for that song. i don't feel like that is my song, that was meant for everybody and everybody find

george w. bush took the lead. now i didn't always agree with george w. bush. but he was the leader.n you had obama in the great recession. he didn't say to the governors, republicans, democrats, red/blue states, listen, some of you states got hit way worse. there is some hot spots here. and i remember those hot spots because those were the areas where the real estate market just fell out. he didn't say that the governors, this is what you have to do. we are one nation under god. i want to say this, joy. i'm trying to be not emotional. but today watching this presser and i didn't watch the entire thing. i couldn't. my husband and i kind of took turns doing it. it was painful. it was painful. at one point i just looked at stu and said god help us. this man is a loser, not a leader. he's afraid. he's scared. he's a coward. he can't take the leadership mantle because this is a terrible crisis. and so we are in the situation and, you know, saying president should resign, that's great to say that and feel it and as a pragmatist, he's no the resigning. what we have to do is just doing what

the george w. bush presidential center hosted this event. >> here at the bush center we have a wonderful relationship with our partners at smu. it's so nice to have dr. gerald and his wife tonight. we are grateful for all of our board members in attendance. knowing our panelists, tonight will be one of those engaged programs that is informative and highly

next up, george w. bush. 20th spot. it will be interesting when we do the next survey at the end of the trump presidency if whether george w. bush moves up at all. he passed away. we had three days of celebration in this country of presidency and reminders of the things he accomplished. that has an impact on our historians, too. bill clinton we just talked about in 15th place. george w. bush, 33rd. the first time we had him right after he left office, he was one point lower. we added another president so he moved up one. but he is pretty close to the bottom 10. not only -- certainly the reaction to 9/11 is an important part, but the economic crisis, the wars that ensued, his response to hurricane katrina, are all things that over time, we will see how historians rate his presidency. finally, barack obama, his debut in the survey, he came in 12th place. not a bad place to start. just a couple more of these. here are the top five in 2017. dwight eisenhower, as we talked topre, making it into the five for the first time. th

see speeches from presidents ronlt reagan, george bush. george w. bush and barack obama. white house core responsibilities' speeches. ll this on the free c-span radio app. next, nasa statementor jim bridenstein briefing president trump on three pieces of nasa technology knack help the nation battle the coronavirus. >> thank you very much, everybody. you know all about nasa and we've really done a job with nasa. it's been reinvigorated. it was dead as a doornail and now it's very much alive. perhaps, and you know everybody. they know you swls everybody. why don't you give them a little presentation? >> absolutely. nasa has been hard at work. part of the whole government approach to combat the coronavirus so a lot of our work force has been staying at home. the question is what do you do with rocket scientists when they stay at home? what nadeau is build amazing nifpks. i have just flee to showcase here but familiar so many others we could talk about but i'll go from left to right. this is an oxygen hoods, so a person who has coronavirus, we wants to make sure that they hav

texas and m university is home to the george w. bush presidential library and museum. family's look at the personal collection as well as objects from the president's memorial service. ♪ hail to the chief" being ]layed ♪ warren: the exhibit is one we started putting together after the president by. people -- president died. weree in college station really invested in it, the train came up here from houston. they were proud of the fact that the first lady and president were very dear. a lot of that was incorporated into the exhibit. you can see the life-sized statue of sully, president bush's service dog. at a ceremony a couple of months ago we installed sully, and the to thefe sully came ceremony. the dog is now at walter reed. the iconic photo in the exhibit is of sully in front of president bush's casket. president bush got sully in june for aboute served six months until the president's death on november 30, 2018. so we have a picture of him as a ,uppy, and with president bush and he did everyday tasks and added quality to the last months of his life. the memorial e

carter lost support after many months, in the iran hostage crisis but president george w bushin crisis but president george w bushelf re—elected. so having a drop in support now doesn't necessarily tell us much about which way it will go. not only that i think presidential approval as a metric now is less relevant to how people are assessing their leadership. what is much more releva nt leadership. what is much more relevant actually is how they are assessing their own lives. the rate of americans who are thriving has also limited this month, and those other metrics that we gather all around the world and seen declined right before things like the arab uprising, the ukraine war, the vote for brexit, even the election of president trump himself. those number and that metric is what we are watching most closely, and most specifically with regards to social unrest and some of the content social unrest and some of the co nte nt you social unrest and some of the content you have earlier in your programme. briefly and historically does a 43% in april approval rating tell us anything about what will happen in an electio

company but you were one of the people clamoring for the release of the pdb when i worked in is the george w. bush white house before 9/11. i said, in the last block, was part of the communications department to declassify that pdb, what role will congress play in declass mying the president's pdb. >> nicolle, the president has made so many mistakes. we have to look forward and hope he won't continue to make mistakes. . this information is very valuable. it says to the american people, the president ignored this guidance, this advice, this information, this intelligence, so hopefully they may change some behavior of him or those around him. it was dangerous, in fact deadly. let's go forward. as we prepare for the future. i don't know that this administration is on the basis of any guidance they had scientifically or intelligencewise preparing for if there's a vaccine that's develop do we have the capacity to produce it in our country, do we have the supply chain in place to have the ingredients? do we have the syringes? and do we have in place an ethical standard to fairly, fairly and equally dist

texas and m university is home to the george w. bush presidential library and museum.ily's look at the personal collection as well as objects from the president's memorial service. ♪ hail to the chief" being ]layed ♪

as connie rice said, george w. bush was a different president in 2016 he was in 2003. that comes through really powerfully for me in the interviews. let me close with something president bush did say in the interviews, which i think sums up really nicely why this worked as well as it did, which is that the military's job is to figure out how to win, the president's job is to decide if we want to win. that's what works in 2006. (applause) >> good afternoon, it's come up a couple of times now by peter leffler talked earlier about whether academics can or cannot admit they had a mistaken got something wrong. in my case, i'm surprised if this isn't true for a lot of academics, there is no way around that because my students always, always remind me when i got something wrong because i'm always making predictions or malawi saying this will probably happen, this could happen and this can't happen and i get it wrong as often, probably more often than i get it right and i thank my students for constantly reminding me of that. i just want to thank the organizers, all the organiz

you have to be pretty confident in your chador and george w. bushackstage and he's as i've made this pretty easy for you all. i gave you a strategery. they look at each other and say should we tell them. he said we made that up. he thought he said it. they said but you didn't make up miss-underestimated. [laughter] >> what i was trying to say in my louisiana language. the song live like you are dieting is one of those songs i feel like i'm very privileged ande blessed to be the vessel fr that song. i don't feel like it's my phone. my song. i feel like it's aea song for everyone and everyone finds a way to relate to that and that is what great music does. to move people and bring people together in a way they may not have been brought together without a song or a message like that. >> do you ever think about the difference between a political song and a cultural one? >> i don't. i think about good songs. i don't think i would necessarily move a song if it was meant towo be political. i think i would do one that is named to move you and whether it has

george h.w. bush, bill clinton, george w. bush and include barack obama's 2008 election.he university of virginia's miller center hosted the event.

george w. bush is a bit with the war on terror and i think most of them supported that from much of the administration but once he leaves office during the obama ayers you are back to the period that the conservatives are asking what now. the big surprise in my opinionn of 2016, 2015, 2016 in the republican primary was not a candidate could win the republican nomination, in fact the presidency campaigning against the internationalist tradition going back to the 40s.ti donald trump really led a frontal assault on the conservative internationalist tradition going back decades, and he one which was astonishing. he sort of turned things upside down. thene groups that have been marginalized folk that they were underrepresented and those that were in charge were deeply concerned. but i think what he was doing in a wacom and i' way, and i'm notg that he personally read these older documents, but by the suggestion instinctively as a kind of american nationalist who draws from the older traditions to maintai

and in fact, perhaps george w. bush was the un-clinton. we have developed this curious habit, which i don't really associate with early stages in our history. irst of all, not since jefferson, madison, monroe have we had three presidents, successive presidents elected to two terms. only once before. but the paradox is we elect this person to a second term, and then we look for someone who is the diametric opposed lternative to take their place. i don't know if there is logic to that. susan: how much do you think it might be due to overexposure? richard: oh, god. [laughter] you know, it is true. the cult of personality, even those who do not have any personality. [laughter] victims of a cult of personality, the white house is ringed, figuratively, by satellite trucks. we have 24 hours. there is not enough news to fill 24 hours. in fact, if you watch it, you are not seeing news, you are hearing "analysis." hich is another word for opinion, depending on which station you tune into. the fact is that the assumption is everything a president say