The answer is, that i feel prepared . Yes, i really did. First of all, i wasnt elected, so it didnt make that much difference. I did notice though the difference between being the Vice President s wife and the president s wife is huge, because the Vice President s wife can say anything. Nobody cares. The minute you say one thing as president s wife, youve made the news. So that was a lesson i had to learn. During george bush is presidency, barbara bush used the office of first lady to promote literacy and to raise awareness about aids and homelessness. She also earn her way into the history books this color. She and Abigail Adams are the only women in our history to be both the wife and mother ebay president. Good evening, and welcome to cspan series, first ladies, influence and image. Tonight is the story of Barbara Peirce bush, the wife of our 41st president , George Herbert walker bush. And here for the next 90 minutes sets to tell us more about her life and her influence our two guests. Myra gutin is the barbara bush biographer, part of that first lady series weve turned to so often during this series this year. Shes a first ladies scholar, and she teaches at Rider University in lawrenceville, new jersey. N thanks very much for being here with us. My pleasure. Jeffrey engel is the founding director of the center for president ial history at Southern Methodist university. Hes the author of one book on george bushs Foreign Policy and at work on another one. Thank you for being here tonight. Good to be here. Now we heard barbara bush at the outset talk about the fact, when she became first lady, her words had much more much more attention getting. Its really been interesting that that trend continues. Throughout our program tonight, we will see clips of an interview that she gave to us in october. And one of them, which we released last week, has been bouncing all around the news network for several days because she talked about president ial dynasties, political dynasties in history, and also about the potential for her own, some governor jeb bushs, president ial aspirations. I wanted to start there, because barbara bush, as you describe her in the biography, was in fact, you used that it was a carefully managed public presence. But at the same time, she had a reputation for a good quote and candid comments. How do those two things mesh . I think she was always very aware of her public persona. And i think that she, particularly in the white house, was always concerned about whether some action might end up having political consequences for her husband, but she also was very candid, and sometimes a comment slipped out, and she admonished herself for it from time to time. So, the candid barbara bush had some places and minuses for the Bush Administration overtime. Will you talk a little bit about that . Yes, most definitely. She was somebody who would really speak her mind, and she was also somebody who would speak remind to the president , but not in a public way. Behind the scenes, in their bedroom, when nobody else was there, she would tell him what he really thought. Well, lets stay with that no, because as were working our way through the biographies of these women, barbara bush is between too much more publicly activist first ladies, nancy reagan, we learned about last week, next week, Hillary Clinton. Barbara bush in this interview talks about her approach to the job and whether or not she takes not to just approach. Lets listen to that. If you ever wanted to give advice or talk about policy with your husband, how would you do that . How would you approach that . Well, if i wanted to i would just tell him. But the truth is, i really did not want to. He had great advisers. Ive never ever called his office to say if i had something to say, i said it to george bush, but i didnt call jim baker or anyone in his office to say, george, this is what i think should be today, because i just dont do that. I never had an office, except in the house. Here, at the white house, i had an office, but i never went to it. My staff used it. But ive worked in the white house, and i worked in the Vice President s house, at home. I just did not get into his office affairs. So, my rug, describe her approach to the first ladys office. Well, she says she became first lady that she wanted to do something positive every day, and she really set out with her staff to try to do that she looked at potential for literacy project, some of the other things that she was interested in, and then it was really full speed ahead to try to do that one good thing every day. But if you as you look through the documentary evidence of the Bush Administration, working you see through historical documents, not at this point, evidence of barbara bush is influence on the white house . Theres very little evidence for influencing policy. That was really not something she was interested in. Unlike other first ladies, she believed her rule was to set a proper standard for the white house, set a proper standard for the administration. So her impact upon the administration was really in portraying them as forthright, as honest as direct, and she was a very direct person. We dont see any particular policies that come out of her influence. Rather, we see a general tone, a general accepting tone, when that the public really took to over the course of three years in the white house. How was that tone different from the reagan years . Well, mrs. Reagan liked to get her hands dirty and politics and in policy within the white house, almost Court Politics if you will. She would frequently call up advisers to the president and admonished them for one thing or another and really try to maneuver people throughout the administration, putting people that she liked and different places. Mrs. Bush never did that. She is a person who did not directly involved herself in policy. But there is an important distinction to be made their. She cared a lot about politics. She knew what was going on in washington. She knew all the players. She knew all the actors. She made sure that she knew the gossip. But she wasnt interested in changing the policy. That was the president s job. And during the campaign times, which involved in Campaign Strategy that you know . With less about Campaign Strategy than being out in front of the campaign, because especially as the president moved into campaign for his second term in 1992, she was really much more popular than he was, in terms of polls throughout the country. So there was many times when the president not only would send her out on the campaign trail, but really would begin to answer questions, with well, you know barbara, and i think and that was a way of really saying that he was with her, she was the popular. When the subtitle of your biography of barbara bush is president ial matriarch, and thats the next clip we would like to show you of her talking about her relationship and her view as a steward of her family. Listen. How do you develop that thick skin, for politics, for criticism . I am not good at it. Most people dont dare criticize my children in front of me. But the press, i dont pay any attention to. I just dont like it, but i dont pay any attention to it. Dont dare criticize george h. W. Bush, ever. Dont dare criticize george bush, ever. When she came to the white house, she told her press secretary, anna perez, that there were three areas where you better keep hands off her fellow, her family, and her dogs. And that pretty much followed through. She was very concerned and reacted sometimes very quickly if there was criticism of george bush, who she always called george bush, and the children. Today we are going to invite you, as we always do, to participate in our discussion tonight, and there are three ways you can do it. We have a conversation already underway on cspans facebook page, and you can join that and we will work some of the questions and comments into our discussion tonight. You can also tweet us using the handle firstladies. And finally, you can call us. We have our lines divided geographically. If you live in the eastern of central time zones, 2025853880. If you live in the mountain, pacific or even farther west, 2025853881. And throughout the 90 minutes, we will try to get as many comments from as many different media as we can in our program tonight. Well, lets get back in time in understand where she came from. She was born in new york city 1925. Tell me more about barbara pierces background. Well, as you said, she was born in new york. At the time of her birth, her father, marvin pierce, was on the staff of the president at the mccauls publishing company. Her mother pauline, was a descendant of an Ohio Supreme Court justice. And the piers family was distantly related to president franklin pierce. The family moved to rye, new york, where barbara and her siblings and older sister and two younger brothers grew up. And it was comfortable upbringing. They went to Public Private schools. And then when barbara was old enough for high school, she was sent away to ashley hall, a boarding school in south carolina. And home for christmas break of her junior year, she would went to a country club dance, and thats when she met george h. W. Bush. These are very young people, and they got married very young. Can you talk about what you know about the attraction, early courtship that led to this young marriage . They both, by both accounts, according to both of, them were attracted from the. Start they developed a real because of the distance a real intimate correspondence socialist typical for the times, especially correspondence that continues as george bush decides to join the navy and pushes for it and actually becomes the youngest aviator in the Pacific Theater for the United States navy. And our correspondents throughout the entire period its emotional its intimate its something that drew them both together when it could be to get in the same spot. And when the times they were together electric for. Them they were really knew from the very start that they were for each. Other she began school at Smith College yes she did. And she was there for a year and she admitted that she was really was in the most dedicated of. Students she was more interested in her boyfriend george bush. I believe she was rather in athletics at her time at smith and she went back for the first semester of her sophomore year and then left school to marry george bush. And then left school to mary george bush. As a young couple, when george bush went off as an aviator to the pacific arena, he had some very close encounters. You know the story of being shot down in the pacific and what bush knew about that . Its a truly harrowing story. He was on a bombing run and went in and started to dive in with his bomber and was immediately hit by enemy black. He continued on his Bombing Mission and called back to his two fellow crewmates and said we will continue this mission. We will dump out and bailout after the mission. He thought they had already left the plane. He discovered only later that there was no chance for them to have survived. There was no other parachute. He spent four and a half hours bobbing up and down in the pacific before he was rescued by a summary. And he spent another several weeks actually continuing with some rain on their patrol mission. And during that time, it was very unclear for the bushes, his parents, what had happened to him. He was officially listed as missing in action. And they made a conscious decision not to tell barbara at that time of what was going on until they knew for certain that he was going to be fine. They missed their first wedding date because he still wasnt back. And then finally he was back. On january 6th, about two weeks after the original date, they were married. And he served in the military until when and then went to yale at what point . He served until 1945. Until the peace treaties were signed. He had flown so many sorties during the war that had many points accumulated so he was able to take an early out. And then he and barbara left for new haven and yale and the beginning of his long delayed college career. And during that time period, the first child was born . Thats right. George walker bush was born during that time. And it was also at that point that george h. W. Bush was playing varsity baseball at yale and barbara was the official score for the team. It was a happy time for them at yale. Ultimately the bushes had six children. Yes thats right. And they were george, then Pauline Robinson was known as robin, john. Neil was born in 1955 and the final child dorothy was born in 59. I want you to tell the story if you would about robins death, because it clearly impacted both parents for all of their lifetime. Robin was a little over two years old and woke up one morning and at this point the pushes were in texas. She said to barbara, i think today im just going to stay in bed or maybe ill go out on the lawn and look at the clouds going by. And that raised a red flag for barbara right away because her daughter was very active. She took her daughter to the pediatrician and the pediatrician asked barbara and george to come back a little bit later that day. And she said to them, your daughter has leukemia. And george bush said, well what does that mean . He said at that point in time who knew what it was. And the doctor said will it means that shes not going to live very long. The doctors recommendation was that robin be allowed to go home and enjoy things. Be around her family. But one of george bush is her relatives was a doctor at Sloan Kettering in new york, the hospital, and robin was taken there to try some different treatment modalities to try to deal with the leukemia. A prolonged her life a little bit. She even returned to texas once, but she passed away. I and the bushes still talk about her today, and still the emotion is very visible all these years. Absolutely. Its dramatic. I mean, president bush spent his entire life writing letters. Thats one of the things hes known for and famous for. And perhaps one of the most painful letters that we have in the archive are about him writing about his daughter, riding to his mother, in fact, years later, talking about the pain in his heart, the thing thats missing, the fact that we really do need a little girl in our lives. Running around, that life was not the same sense. But they did manage to recover to some degree, and they had a big and bustling family. And this next clip, from our interview in october, barbara bush talks about her role as a parent versus the future president s role. Lets listen. Youve been referred to by some family members as the enforcer. Right. Of the bush family. What do you think about the reputation . Well, im not sure im thrilled with laura saying that. I deserve it, because george is so you know, anything they do is all right. But someone has to be sure that these standards are kept. And he leads by example. I lead by denying some things. And i am the enforcer, theres no question about it. Do i like that role . No. What i rather he had done it . Yes. But it didnt work that way. Have any comments about barbara bush as the enforcer . Well, her husband always called her miss frank. And, indeed, she is. And she has had his back and the back of all her family members all of these many years. If someone was critical of them, she was going to respond. There was a story that a reporter once told me that, if you wrote something negative about bill clinton during the clinton administration, maybe the clintons would forgive you and let you write another story. If you said something negative about george h. W. Bush, you were done until the next administration. We have two questions. One on facebook and one on twitter, about this aspect of mrs. Bush is life. David welsh wants to know, what aspects of mrs. Bushs personality might be seen in her son, president george w. Bush . Have any thoughts about that . Well, i think that both of them have long memories. Barbara bush, i think, does not let go of criticism very easily. Im not sure that George Walker bush does either. And a similar question and you can respond to both. Regina crumkey on twitter, are there any passions that a Young Barbara passed on to her own children . Well, you know we have to appreciate i think you understand barbara bush, you need to appreciate that she was really a product of her times. And the passion that she passed onto her children with the fact that she had devoted her entire life to them. To raising a family and to be a good and loyal wife to her husband over the course of his varied careers. I mean, he was really for many times in many sense, and active and absentee father for many years because he was on the road as a salesman, then he was on the road as a politician, then he was on the road as a government official. She was the one who was there every night. And for george w. Bush in particular, i think that helped form a real bond between the two of them especially after robinson fortunate death. Just to pass some statistics on that, so people get a sense of how mobile this family was, by the time they made it to the white house, they had at that point been married for 43 years and at that point they even lived in 29 different houses in 17 cities. So it was quite a life on the move. Right. Dave murdock wants to know is, rumor has it that barbaras hair turned white after robins death. Is that true . I believe its true. I believe its true. I believe thats true. Yeah. Ive heard. And she. And not surprisingly, given the devastating nature of losing a child, she took the death very very deeply. This is a period where in many ways we would say today that she went through a period of depression. And it was only she tells the story it was only after she was so sad for so many months that you heard george outside saying to a young friend, im sorry i cant come out and play today because i have to take care of my mother. She realized this is too much burden to put on a little boy. But it also demonstrates the pain that she was having at the time as well. Leroy is watching us in monticello, kentucky. Hi, leroy. You have a question . Yes maam. Where the bush family a bible reading people . Did they go by their scripture . They go to church . Right, thank you for your question. Later on if you watch, until the end, we do have a clip where barbara bush talks a