Are always important, but never more so important than the time that were living in. We heard former president bill clinton use the words total class. And we heard former president barack obama, a democrat, say a gentleman. And i think civility, his graciousness, the way he handled himself is a role model we all will miss. Jamie, dana, thank you. This is cnn breaking news. Im don lemon. It is the top of the hour. Here is our breaking news. The 41st president of the United States, george h. W. Bush has died at the age of 94. The flag at the white house flying at halfstaff right now as flowers pile up outside the bush home in houston, texas. Tributes are pouring in from President Trump and former president S Barack Obama and bill clinton. As well as former Vice President al gore and condoleezza rice, james baker, and so many more. The nation mourning the man who devoted his life to service to his country and to his family. Cnns john king now with the story of george h. W. Bush, the polit
almost 200 years would pass before adams 2 and 6 were succeeded by bush s 41 and 43. dad taught me how to be a president. before that he showed me how to be a man. in 41, it is awesome that you are here today. reporter: much of america has changed between the era of the adams years and the era of the bush years, but not everything. it s still easier for a president to take criticism than see it dished out the members of his family. as you told me many times, whenever either one of your sons is criticized. much more hurtful than when i used to be in that crossfire. much. it s not even a close call. reporter: sometimes the roles were reversed. mother used to call me. you need to call your dad. why? because he just read some editorial and he is upset. so i call him and he said can you believe what they said about you? and i said dad, don t worry about it. i m doing fine. i m doing fine. reporter: in their published letters, as well as in their books and interviews we have a
another threat, a cancer gnawing away at our nation s health. that cancer is the budget deficit. all his political people said don t raise taxes, but president bush was convinced he had to and put his t country ahead of his own political standing, agreeing in the end to a compromise that was $3 in cuts to every dollar in taxes. there is a time when you have to make tough decisions, give a little to get what is best for the country. if you do the math, you don t get the clinton era balanced budgets without the bueschesh e taxes. he was the last world war ii veteran to win the white house. he served a couple of terms in congress, lost a couple of u.s. senate races and was republican party chairman during the wilderness years of watergate. he decided to challenge jimmy carter in 1980, but an incumbent
same. and a great lesson for that and loyalty goes up and down. and he certainly lived that israel in life. but his family has talked about his personality that many of us don t see or didn t see at all. you can speak to that as well, peter. well, that s right. it is interesting. sometimes people who have tremendous personal qualities, aren t conveyed as well. he was actually one of the most impressive people you would ever meet when you saw him, a person who is in command, and really radiated a kind of strength, as well as a dignity. i wanted to say something else too, because a lot of people have said, and rightly so, how deeply he loved his family. the other thing is how deeply his family loved him. it was a remarkable thing. i know both of his sons, two of his sons, jeb and president bush 43, and they not only loved him, they revered him.
across the top of the speech, too many is. he felt as president of the united states, it was more important to use the word we in a democracy. it was part of his character not to talk about himself. his mother called it the great i am. don t talk about the great i am. but he also thought that it was deeply unfair to say i want this, i want that as president. he thought that that was unfair to the people who actually had to go do the work of implementing the policies. so he would always say we, we re going to do this together. here what s we re going to do as a nation. and he thought that was important for our democracy. he also felt that in terms of his humility, self-deprecating humor was very important. so at these big dinners, the white house correspondents dinner, the alfalfa dinner, the gridiron, he never pointed out people in the crowd and belittled them or made fun of his political opponents, which is very much in vogue the last few years. he stuck more to making fun of