Acting as your host tonight. On behalf of of saunders Publishing Group i want to thank you all for coming. I also want to think the rest of the team for making this event possible and for joining us like tonight. I had the inner was privilege of introducing our guest first governor jeb bush. He served as the 43rd governor of the state of florida and the first republican in the States History to be reelected. Under his limited government approach he grew one of the best dynamic economies creating 1. 3 million net new jobs and increasing the credit rating. Currently governor bush serves as Investment Partners llc in both are headquartered in coral gables, florida. Tonights guest of honor author susan mack policy and senator connie mack. In 1982 senator mack led a successful banking career to run for the house of representatives where he served three terms before running for one of floridas seats in the u. S. Senate. He then served two terms before choosing to not run for reelection but upon returning to the private sector he became chairman and radice in tampa, florida. With that i will handed over to governor bush to begin the conversation but keep in mind you can submit your questions through the chat feature and lar in the event we will tap into those. Thank you very much. Its such a joy to have this conversation with a man i admire so much and i read the book connie, its a great book. Thank you, deb. The New York Times today d a article about independent bookstores that i think is worth mentning because im a kindle guy but every time i read a book on a kindle i buy ten books to send to friends and i think its important to be able to really focus on the fact that as a nation weeed to be literate and we need to be supporting authors across the spectrum but im a big fan of your doors and a big supporter of soy got ten books and i will get it on kindle and then get ten books i will buy i and hope people will do that as well but if you he a chance to dot i would suggest you do it at an independent bookstore which are struggling during the pandemic. And enough of my paid political announcement. Jeb, there are four in bena bookstores tha are participating in this tour. I think we ought to name who they are good midto reader, books and books down coral gables, bookstore one in sarasotand so story and song and they are very special. Midtown reader happens to be the bookstore of sally brad shaw. Bu gained greater appreciation for the struggles of a Small Business owner as well during these times so connie, it wasnt mentioned and a lot of the books but i think its probably appropriate to talk about, your childhood, where did you grow up . You were born in philadelphia and at some pnt move down to florida and bece a true blue floridian so describe your childhood. I was born in philadelphia, 1940. The family moved to fort myers in 1950 and we ended up in fort myers because my grandfathers Baseball Team trained i fort myers back in 20s and 30s and in fact one of the greatest teams that eve played the game train here in fort myers in 1929 and dad in 1931, 1931, 33 was a coac, first based coach and they may still hold the record ashe youngest coach in Major League Baseball and thatas my father in obviously i traveled with the team down here to fort myers and they loved fort myers ando when he sold his ierest in the team the family med to fort myers i 1950 so i grew up really in fort myers, grade school, high school and the university of florida. Where did you go to high school . Fortyers junior, senior high school. Seventh and eighth grade went to school with the ninth, tenth, 11th and 12 and was the only, it was the Major High School in lee county back in those days. You are one of the few people that served in the senate b also has grandparents that are like ligs out important in some anyway soescribe that because i didnt know or knew about connie mack the first but Cornelius Mcgillicuddy but i didnt know about yr other grandfather which is a story that you did not share that muc when you were on the stump. Its always that balance. If youre out there talking about your grandfather, not yourself, who are you and what do you believe so i stayed away from that but, you know, obviously actually proud of my heritage from my mothes side and they are texans. Mike great grandfather John Shepherd was a congressman from texas in the 1800s and he died in904, i think in my andfather ran for the state and one that seat and went to the house in 1904 where he remained until, i believe,912 when he was appointed to the senate and in those days senators were not directly elected but were appointed by the stateegislators so he was in the senate from 1912 until 1941 and died as the forgotten the term now but he had seniority and he was the dean of the senate whene died in 1941 and he was 61. He had a a norm is an amazing career. Yeah, and Lyndon Johnson try to replace them and got beat which people dont remember. He came back in 48 and became Thunited States senator and was the dean of the senate in his time to. I mig just pick up onne ought down this road which is that when i was seven years old mother and dad, there wer four children in the famy at that time and we were living in philadelphia and they took us by train to washington dc and i remember they gave us pads and pencils to take not about the things that we were seen and what we had an opportunity to particate in. I remember seeing my stepgranather who i had not mentiod yet in my grandfather died and myrandmother a year later married the other united stes senator from texas tom conley. So he was in the senate until 1952, 52, 54 and interestingan but i heard himpeak on the floor of t senate when i was seven years old and i am sure back in my mind that little dreamas planted and i wonder if i could do that someday so yes, very interesting family background. Yeah, absolutely. Listen, you are part or the part or the chaer of the part of the book that i found most interesting was your relationship with your brother michael and, you know, you talk about his battle with cancer and it clear had an impact on you li and its such a beatable story of love and of brotherly love andou and your other brother. Yeah, dennis. In the night,n the floor as he was suffering with this dreaded disease. Could you sha some insights into that . Again, it tru was one of those events that takes placen a persons life and changes who they are and what they end up doing with their life. I can remember, i remember one conversation with mike ando remember the movie, john denver playedhe role and well, michael was, you know, dealing with incredible pain but through that pain we would sit there we would discuss all of the meaning and purpose of life and what my supposed be doing with my life and what is life all about and mi was speaking as if he were pln god through george burns and it was hilarious, absolutely hilarious. But, you kw, mike and dennis, two of my brothers and i have several others but mike and dennis and i were with the university of florida together in the same fraternity and dennis graduated nber one in his class with honors and after having a radical next surgery didnt drop outf law school and coinued on and graduated number one in his class wit high honors and a brilliant young man. Play the qatar,layed the piano, loved t sing a he was just a bright, capable loving guy and somebody that i love dearly and losing him really foed me to look at myself and say okay, what will you do with your life the it is the most meaningful experience ive had in my life. I think its an important point which is that we live lives and when we have tragedy hit us w can either go under the fetal position and justike say life is not fair and its just not fair and imust not going to bece bitter or you can reflect on it and figure out something that can be purposeful. I think that is your Public Service and it sounds like it was driven by a motivation to serve others in your post elected ficial life is certainly been the exact same thing. I commend you for that areae will get into politics a little bit maybe if i could pick up on. Of course. So, while i didnt end up in the position and it up dealing with depression after my brothers death. Fortunately, it did not last too long and i was never cold, treated for depression but i know i was depssed. Where are the people that i counseled with was a fellow by don cng who was a reverend of a small Church Called the chuh of the brethren and in conversations with don at one point he kept stressing a special person and we deflected were not comfortable being told those kinds of things and he would say that over a over and finally i looked at him one day and said don, what i hear you ying to me is that the failure to use the talents that god has given you is the worst sin a person can commit ando sooner then i said that i knew exactly what i had to do that ias going to run for congress. I drove home that evening and i mean, tears coming down my face as i was driving home because i was scared t death and i was absolutely scared to death and hated to give speeches. I got home and told chris, what would you say if i told you i was going to run for the congress a she said great, go for it. Fantastic. I will tell you a quick story, when i lost my race for governor in 1994t was traumatic because i put my heart and soul into the race and losing, you never had that exterior its you dont know howt feels but its not good. Its better to win than lose and i always tell people that run for office find a bad candidate to run against because you have a better chance ofinning. Iran against [inaudible] who never lost and then came in second. I felt like i left a lot of people down and i pledge to myself i would convert to catholicism. That we would go to mass every sund but i wasnt catholic and going to the rci a process after the election with regular people that had a faith in god made a huge difference in my life and to this day. It is amazing how, you know, if you have your eyes and ears open and you are open t the new thinking you can, it changes your life but if you go to the fetal position it will never be able to do it and hear the living proof of that. Youve proven that your motivation driven by the trage of your brothers ls made a huge dference for our state. Im so thankful that you had that experience. I have often said about your experience of losing that first race, you are the only pern i know tt lost a race and said i will find out why did i lose thatace and what i need to do to win the next i do it a i think it was four years and the next four years i wil learn as much as i can possibly learn about the state of florida and the concerns and you did and it was a pleasure for me you ran for congress and imagine that and out of the blue and never beenhat active in politics but in the book you talk about an incredible debate at the debate club in naples and its unbelievable and almost rides me of what politics was parked today when was that . Eightytwo. That stuff did notappen but tell a story of the nonpartisan gathering where people talk about politics and exist across the state and you are there in your opponent the most amazing response was connie mack at his best. Tngs just happen and have to deal with them so its 1982 and tiger bay cb were supposed to be a candidate form and snt a debate but we make the speech and they can make a speech and it was doing a Runoff Election back in those days if you did not win the primary by warty, 50 so im there and im waitingor my opponent to show up and one of the managers of this hour of the event came over and said we just been informed that your opponent wont be here because of some other reason and one of t folks that lost in the prima election is here to speak on his behalf i that is all right wit you and they were like what will i say . I said sure, absolutely so jim garner was his name and he ripped int or he did not even say but he just really just ripped into the event that i was a pothead in a crook and that th bank was collapsing and i had been fired for myob and i wa sitting there and this was a raised platform and so you get a pretty good view and im lking at the sky and i cant really believe it and i had one of those moments where i really felt like an out of body experience and i really felt like i was maybe ten, 12, 15 feet up abo everybody looking down and the scene taken ple was total personal assassination. He gets throughnd sits down and the moderator looked at me and said well, connie, itsour turn to speak and im thinking to myself what in t world will i say and i just got up there and i said to folks, i remember when i made my announcement that i was running for office. I asked the question why a there more good qualified individuals involved in Politics Today and i said what you just saw bause the reason that they dont. I set down for that w it. Of course the room erupted and it was just a gut reaction about how to respond and i was absolutely right on target. By the way, y show your class always. Thats the kind of person you are in you dont mention the name of your opponent or people who have criticized you in the book which again, now in this new cultural environment the memoirs being written in 2020 about 2020 experience would go into gory details about that person but you showed tremendous class then and in the book and you shared the story and will really classy way as well. It seems to me that if i had to pick the legacy of connie mack and if i had to describe it is embedded in this book which is and its in your introduction is that freedom is at the core of all Human Progress and freedom is worth the struge. As a congressman and a United States senator you acted on that and you whole philosophy and you are so thankful for your suppor of Political Prisoners and repressive regimes in cuba and nicaragua and other places around the world and you are a constant advocate f freedom, notnly in the United States but around the world. We are adjusting to n world, new world order. We started talking about the new world order back with the get was prese in the soviet union collapsed. We are trying to find o way in a new wld really. Focus has been a different aspects of freedom. I approached free mart, free enterprise, free trade and so forth and some of those things are not being approached in exactly the same way, even though i make the case with respect to trump activities with respect to trade, we ended up with a new agreement with mexico and canada a so i think fundamentally went through this contentious period of time we ended up still with the notion that free trade is important. A free society, democratic society, has to be committed to freedom. We always will be what i hear about Politics Today is its more reactionary, its prey on peoples angst and fears. There is legitimate reason why people anxious today. Theres a lot of stuff going on. The explosion of technolog and the destruction that brings, our cultural changes. People are legitimately anxious. What i admed about your political career and those that the philosophy i subscribe to his will is you have to be hopeful and optimistic. You have to describe to people unless green valley on the other set of hill. Its a rocky climb, we are all in it together but at the end of the day things can get better. I love the connie mack philosophy of politics are a lot more than what we are seeing today. This is not related to the president or his opponents if its related to just a political culture today, is that is hopeful and optimistic and so you can see why people are more anxious because people are praying on their angst. How do we get out ofhat . How do w get beyond that . How do we get back to theonnie mack philosophy . There a saying in alcoholics anonymous, called this is one of tho terrible moments when its putting vegetables over personality. Where im going with that, the two words i would u is right now there is hatred on one site and theres anger on the other. Every Media Outlets including all of us who go with an iphone that can either take pictures and send information, we a all focused on how much anger and how much hatred there is instead of saying, let talk about the issues that are important to the country. As individuals we have a responsibility to look through what we are seeing and hearing from the media today, and look at the issues facing the country, whether that is broad Economic Issues or excuse me or local isss in our communities. Getting involved, by getting inlved you are going to change things. A lot of us need to quit getting focused on aer, hate and fear and Start Talking about the issues that are imptant to us. You bring up the good point which is we are a bottomup country. Our successes typically have been where people act on their own sense of consciousness and their unbelief they can make a difference, and act on it. They dont talk about it. They dont write about it. They go out and do it. Maybe that the path forward for our country is to be, the back to the root of the founding, which was not overly reliant on washington, d. C. Right, right. Your service a a united stes senator particularly was cused on a lot of things but Foreign Policy is what you make your mark in so many ways. How you think american Foreign Policy going fward needs to be . What ameris role in the world,ompared to come look, we grew up in the reagan era, and reoring americas leadership in the wor really mattered back then and was hugely successful. We that iterations of that than suessive presidencies, but the world has changed dratically, and where do you see americas role in the world, not just as it relates to freedom but just in terms of bringing security and aspirations for all of us . [phone ringing] you know, so where i would start is that [phone ringing] sorry. I thinkhat might be you, jeb. I is definitely and i cant get [phone ringing] my bad. [laughing] okay. So i think where i would start is your brother, george w. , in my opinion, gave onef the greatest inaugural addresses in the second inaugural when he made the case that americas sponsibility is to project freedom around the globe. Eventually as we work our way through the Foreign Policy issues that are facing our country we have got to get back that notion. Theres a real debate todays you well know as to whether america should continue to projec out this commitment to freedom or should we withdraw. Dont think we can withdraw the the second part of it is it seems to me that going forrd that our relationship with china is the keyelationship and we will have to figure out how were goingo work through that what that requires is that we as a nation need to start working with our allies whether they are in europer in other parts of asia in building organizations and institutions that reflect todays modern commitment to freedom, and build these organizaons in a way we can contain what i think is a potentially frightening experience with china. I think its the great challenge of our time. Engagement with our allie seems to be really important to b able to contain chinas ambitions if they are aspiring to be dominant and a market listed type o powerhouse. We have to combat activities by the unid nations, you know, just try, the things that you are incredible. China and i dont kno whether it was cub or nicaragua, which is put on human rights cncil i think i think to myself thats outrageous, so, were faced with the position of saying maybe its time for us to leave. There are times in my career what i really thought tha weve have got to somehow or another make the united natns more accountable to the notion that freedom is the core of all Human Progress and that ought to be of defending that freedom absolutely. I have a few more questns. One had to talk you about another polical event since we share a common opponent, buddy mckay. And florida is always for whatever reason i dont know why but florida is the place where close election seem to always take place. Yours was a doozy, man. Just to give people come people may not remember the race with vitamin k for the unite States Senate but you had comfortable you the courage to run against two icons. Not one. Which most politicians kind of move around the come try to forget what they, so youre going to run against lawton iles, who it never lost and any got out at the race and then ruben who was very similar kind of person in terms of respect for the people of florida and he got out of the racend then you write against buddy mck and that race was prett close. 50. 4 of the vote. How my days or weeks did that go on postelection . How was that on your family and just the craziness of that experience . It was eight days bore it was concluded so wasnt a terribly long but i will tell you the eight days seem like a very long time to me. 1992, right . 1988. 988. Sorry. The 1988. So there we are, the votes have been counted and, for being counte and is about 12 30 p. M. And we have been getting all this information back and forth abouthe outcome of the count. Sometimes i was being told these are internal conversations. You are up or down, up or down. Some of the data was coming in seemed that i i was going to wh my political consultant was going to brief the family on the ctory, and he was literally telling the why i was going to win. We had tvs behind him, andne by one as hes talking, the say tonight come cbs declared that he mckay the win in the election. And then abc, then cnn. It was pretty rocky nectar chris i went to bed thinking we were 25,000 votes behind ce and can be losthe race, couldnt sle come got up, one of the gat lines of bob dole is being asked by the press, how did you sleep last night . I said i slept great. I slept like a baby. I woke up every two hours crying. Anyway, we got t absentee ballot started being cnted and by the next morning the conclusion that we drew with the absent ballots i was going to win was about 30, 35,000 votes. That, in fact, turn out toe the case. Buddy challengedhough the notion. We didnt have hanginghads but we had poorly desigd ballots apparently. Thats what was bng claimed, and or parts of the state whe not all of voters apparently were able to have the votes counted because it was a big drop off between the president ial election and the senate election. It was a precursor to the000, the election in 2000. The differee that occurred is that major newspapers in the ate basally said to buddy, its time to call this thing over. The votes have been counted. Connie isad by 35,000 35,000 vr so. Its time. D he decided not to take the next step which was to go to court. Thats where 2000, al gor decided to take it to court and what to got to court in the whole thing just took off. But i haveo say one thing. Your dad won the president ial election in 1988 i think in the state of florida by 1 12 or 13 of the vote. It was like 15. Huge. I would never have won the race if he had not won florida in such a big way. Im a proud chairman of the campaign and i appreciate the acknowledgment. It was big deal. In fact, justs an aside, i had resigned as secretary of commerce and was working fulltime for my dads my dad d then moved t california to campaign dads campaign maybe august because the campaign was pretty much over. Caucus g no traction. So fond memories from that campaign. Lord is always close, and the go news is for everybody watching this tnking oh, my gosh, we have 2020, the president ial president ial race, huge interest, it wld be a close race whi it will likely be. Lord election laws are the best in the country and votes will be counted on election night. You dont have to hyperventilate, all the people watching this. It will go fine. The winner will probably be announced that night. If not theres a process to be able to count. All that stuff we lrn from your race and the 2000 election. Tell me about your post Public Service life. Its been remarkable. You have been involved on boards and you have been incredibly focused on the fight against canc, and your advocacy for the Moffitt Cancer Center has been extraordinary as aeader, as a chairman of the board, chairman emeritus i guess now talk to me what its like after u finish running for office and being involved in d. C. What is life like now . Its been a wonderful 20 years. Its hard to belve but 20 years, its been a wderful experience for me. I came up with a phrase come people would s what you going to do when you leave next i said i want to put together an eclectic collection of activities. What i did was i did do a Little Government Relations lobbying kind of stuff during the first year o two i was out of the city. That went by the waysi fairly quickly. The other two components were engagement in the fight against cancer and medical research, and the other was in service owned corporate boas. Of those corporate boards, two of them were Biotech Companies and genzyme being one of them come one of the leading Biotech Companies in the world. The other was a startup. You mentioned earlier leaing the experience. Everybody thatuns for office ought to have sit on the brd of the company tt is desperately trying to make sure it doesnt get shut down a close our run out of cash. The corporate boards were a great experience, but moftt cancerenter, lee moffitt who created the center, he and i had a conversation about the possibity ofy joining their organization, and he offered, i my word, it would mean me t chairman of the board. I said i think its a great idea, lets do it. The Moffitt Cancer Center is just aonderful institution. One of my main objectives there was to create a significant, a premier Melanoma Program. Melanoma is the disease, cancer they kild my brother, michael. We now have a premier Melanoma Program a the Moffitt Cancer Center, which im very proud. Thats fantastic. I have one more political question, which is why the hell did you not accept being Vice President nominee with my brother . Yeah, well i actually tried my best to persuade you. I know you did. Like nobodys business. Thats an interesting part of the book. I had a conversation with your brother not long ago, because this book kind of ought it to my mind. Maybe i sent the wrong message to George W George w. When i s. I told him, look at, i admirire you, i love what you stood for, whicyou worked for, but it just wasnt time f me. And again, but the bottom line that in 1996 bob dole put me on the short list to be a Vice President ial candidate, and again 1996. At some point bobaid look, i need to kw if i were to say to you, i want you to r, need to know if youre gng to say yes or no. And so i went to the process of trying to decipher i want to tell you something. Was a heart wrenching experience to go through to try to fure out was this the right thing to do. And in thend i said okay, im going to do it. But i but i was never so believy life when Bob Dole Jack Kemp to his running mate. Good man. Wderful guy. Wonderful guy. But anyway, so the experience of going through that really thinking through did i want to do it, then noteing selected come to conclusion i came to is, youeally dont want to go to the next level. I just this was 20 when he was now talkingo me. I always announced almost two years before that i was stepping down and not going to run f reelection. I never regretted it but it i dont how many ofhe people have been in a position that said no. Probably none think about it, connie, in 2000 if if you were on the ticket, george wouldve won by more than 425 votes. [laughing] a lot of agony for who lot of people. You would he been a great partner with him, for sur its interesting, think about it, whether your decision process was your own, but the fact that for two election cycles in a row you were consided someone that special to be a Vice President ial nominee. Its a reflection on your service which was full of integrity, full of consistency, and you happened to become you a very popular senator in a really important state. It was a great life, no question about it. I have two more questions. One, there was a chapter in the book about the Prayer Breakfast, and in the senate, t Senate Prayer breakfast. Describe to me how important that was in your le and how you kind of move towards it and how it became integral in your service. As you mentioned earlier, we are both catholic and so i i gw up as catholic. I was an altar boy, spiritual, religious perspectives were always a part ofe, but not, they were not the leading force in what i was engaged in. I find myself in the senate and to that, good friends, senator ats and terrible another moment pardon . No, it wasnt. Anyway, invite meo come to the bible sdy. To the bible study i said my schedule is so busy i cant come theres no way i can do it. I kind of just blew it off. Bu dan coats just never quit, and he just kept saying cone, this is perfect for you. You really, really ought to come here so i did. I started going to the, to these Bible Studies and Prayer Breakfast since. Breakfast is. One day in a discussion with dan coats at the bible study were waitin for others, and strange little moment. Dan and and talked about the loving relationship between us and our god come and we Start Talking butrom the standpoint relationship between our own fathers. On earth and that kind of discussion. The nexthing i knew, im going skip ahead, the next thing i knew were sitting around in this bible sdy and some of it is or anyone in the room that would like for us to pray for them for a deeper relationship with jesus christ . Im not kiddingou. I am looking at lloyd. Eyeball to eyeball everything that is going through my mind like a brit light, new york tis square, message is, it aint me, buddy. And as soon as i said that, i said i wt you to pray for me. The next thing we moved to the center of the room, each of them prayed for me and it was a moment in which i felt like m life really changed. I gave up this sense of beingn control,he notion of turning life over mor to god,nd that eventually lead led to other rs for me tolay in the senate. I again that was a lifechanging moment for me. It again was very special. I have always send you to be a person with lots of serenity, just not just cool calm and collected but altogether, just totally in touch with imptant things with life. Good humor, humble but i think this experience that y described may be the reason why i felt this, i dont know. I dont know if if it was a bee connie and after connie moment but most of my experiences with you are that you are just, you have a relationship with a higher being that is powerful. Theres another aspect to it but i appreciate you saying that. Onef the most important things foeach of us is to understand who we are. Lots of people have ideas about who w a but its really important to try to understand what i is that makes you tick, why do you do the things you do, who are you. That makes the difference. Under this calm and cool individual ce theres a lot going on, jeb. Has good to know. One final question then well open it up for questions, is the book reads in some ways lik a love story. Its a romantic love story. How was pscilla doing . Thank you for asking about her. Very special. Shes gone through some tough years. Th last five, six, seven years medical issues. Her back, severe pain, but shes worked to all of that. We have found procedures that addrsed that pain and she has comeack strong. Ship to two cases of meningitif you believe that,ne after the other. Where itame from nobody knows picture one case of pneumonia. But now she seems to b strong and outhe pain and is loving andhe always has been. What a delightful woman she is come and you arelessed to have her as your soulmate. Amy, i was going to open this up for questions that pgh yes will now transition into the questions. Thank you for the incredible conversation. Th first question we have is if you could please explain the significance of the books title. So lets say what the title again. It is citizen mack pitics, an honorable calling. So listen, i was asked by a friend of mine what the name of th book was and citizen mack politics, an honorable calling, and he immediately said o its a ficti. [laughing] and so, no, goes back to it wha jeb and i were talking earlier about my great grandfather, stepgranather all serving in the house and in the sene. My mother always talk of them in such a deep fully respectful way in talking about how honorable they were. I just always looked at polits is being an honorable calling. Notice i didnt say an honorable pression. I said its an honorable caing. The difference is that means those ofs who run for office have a responsibility to make sure its an honable calling and that we act accordingly. So citizen mack, the other part of it is the notion you dont snd your entire life in politics. I had a life of 16 years in banking before i ran for office and i had 18 years in office and then another 1618 years in the private sector ain, healthcare and boards. The notion you ashe citizen you go and you serve a there is a time to say thank hank youd time to go home and time to do Something Else with your life. Those are the two thoughts that come to my mind with respe to the title. The nextuestion i is it awful to take a har road and politics . Bsolutely there is. Again i would say to the listeners that i happen to believe that most o the people who in Politics Today do it for the right reasons, but like life, seems like our focus is always on the negativeide of things. They are the ones thatet the attention. Yes, i think absolutely there is a bit of advice i got very early on in my firstampaign in 1982, and th advice was, dont take anything personally. Thats tough to do in politics, but if you take that perective it makes life a lot easier. Absolutely. Once one message you hope that readers wl take from your book . I guess the bottom line is ii hope they will take the notion that politics is an honorable calling, that is something they can do. Jeb and i are just two individuals who made the decision to run but theres almost anywhere in the world, theres opening for people to become involved in politics. So i would hope they would read the book, mbe learn a little bit sometng about it and understand they cld do it, too. Again i would make the point, dont take it personally. Youre goingo be attacked and your parents, you wonder is this really the person that we raise that is being attacked this way . Let it go by and and dont read your twitter feed. Thats good advice. Jeb, thats annteresting point. I forget what pointn my career and to think he was probably 87, so im in my third term as a congreman. I told my staff, i said i dont want to read anythin written about me, whether it is good or bad. Now you have a responsibility though to telle whats been written. Theeason i make this point is if you read something, it just seems to hurt so much more. If somebody tells you they havent written it, it makes it easier to take. So i went through my entire Senate Career without reading the articles that were written about me. Wow. You the only senator, i promise. Well, it works. Itorked. Speaking of which, this is a question i will extend both of you. What personal obstacles did you face while in office and what advice would you give to someone who faces the samebstacles . Im going to let you g first, jeb. I dont know. To be the chance to serve was such a blessing and a privilege. I woke up every day even when bad news happened, which happened regularly under my watch, stuff was flying all the time. I csider is such a joy to rve that the wooden obstacles that i felt there were burdens, problems, the biggest issu for me or when public life kind of contaminated private le, when your family somehow gets subjected to things. That was har i had a blast. It was the greatest joy of my life to serve as governor, and i have no regrets at all. Mistakes i made for sure, that there were no obstacles that it felt couldn be overcome. It was an incredible j. There are obstacles obviously. The difficulties of come first of all making the decision and convincing others that you are the person that it ought to be supporting. That requires again and understanding of the art and commitment to our political life. That would lead me to ts point. I really think most peoe know when you ask them why they a run for office dont really have a good answer to it. People will Say Something like its time to get back. To me thats like the kremlins using a health issue as a reason fo somebody not showing up at the scene. I really thinkts one of the big obstacles needs to be overcome is that a candidate ally needs to fullynderstand what the motivations are for them and what they wanto accomplish. Again, i say that because i was almost forced to do that acting 82 and i think it was such back in it wasuch a meaningful thing to write down what i was really about and what i want to accomplish. Thats a big obstacle. I know the two of you touched on some things from the past that we can bring into our future but what are some things about our current political culture you would like to see us leave behind. Witheave behind . We dont have enough time. The whole thing with social media, we have got to figure out ho to deal with that. I dont know whether folks have watched this document called the social dilemma its on netflix. Everybody in america to see that to understand how social media is manipulatg us. And if we understand how we are being manipulated, weill never stop people from manipuling us, but if we uerstand its happening and try to lea how to deal with it, that would b i think one of the most significant things that we could change. Iould say making sure that we focus on the things we have common and reestablish a set ofhared values of what it is to be an american is the first step towards, moving towards consensus oriented political situation. What were doing now is t exact opposite. Politicians win by dividing, by creating wedges, by stoking fear, on both sides. The great moments of connie mack tenure in the United States senate and as a congressman were when we found Common Ground to solve problems. Connie, you were there when Social Security was reformed. It lasted until now. Literally, tip oneill and Ronald Reagan found consensus and it was supported by democrats and republicans, and the solvency of the Social Security system lasted until about now. Now it is going to be insolvent again and we need that kind of leadership again for ahole series of things for us t remain the greatest country on the face of the earth. I hope that hpens. I i dont want to be nostalgic about the old days because there are so many fun ball mill the normal things going on now but our political system doesnt work when we dont focus on bridging gaps rather than making gaps bigger. Heres a personal thoughts and story. In 1983 i3 i find myself in congress, my First Political fice. Everything brandnew to me and the missile was the Biggest Issue being debated at the time. I wasnt eve sworn and when i was in on the floor listening to this. I know over those first number of months i listen to my mocratic colleagues on the side of the aisle say they cant possibly believe what theyre saying. s so outrageous. Nobody could believe in that. Well, as i got to know se of my friends on the other side of the aisle, they were saying exactly the same thing abo me. And my point there is, we need to understand that people have different views than we do, nestly have those views and they have concerns. Our responsibility is to try to understand what those concerns e, what the motivations are, and openness and a discussion. Its going to take a while to get there but i found that was an important perspective is they thght that i was anyway, i wont go beyond its exactly right. If you sue someone who disagrees with you is evil or the enemy, you have a totally different mindset dancing maybe they a wrong and have to persuade them of my view. Now we just assume someone has a different view, they are evil, they are the enemy. Have to get beyond that mehow. There will be a catalyst book, our cntry is to dynamic, we he the ability come we are too resilient to live through this for years and years and ars to come. We will figure it out. We haveime for one more question, which is cant the republan party of Less Government, less taxes more freedom recover from the trumpcare . Thats yours. [laughing] its interesting the word recover, recover from. The notion, lets see, that was my tagline, less taxing, less spending, Less Government and more fedom. It is as valid today as it was then and atome point somebody is going to refocus on those issues and it will be centerpoint again. But yes, the notion of Less Government and more freedom is a great opportunity for this country. Here it is, baby. I want to thank everyone for all your incredible questions that you sent in, and thank you, senator mack and governor bush this amazing observation. Thank you so much. Thank you, jeb. Thank you for doing this. Love you, connie. Love you, too, buddy. Take care. Weeknights this week we feature booktv programs as a preview of whats available and you began on cspan2. Tonight we focus on science. That starts tuesday at 8 p. M. Eastern. Enjoy booktv this weekend and every weekend on cspan2. Booktv on cspa has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Coming up this weekend. 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