I am here to voice my strong support for the courageous people of afghanistan. Women and men who have suffered for years under the taliban regime. Each and every one of us has the responsibility to stop the suffering caused by malaria because every life and every land matters. All of us can do something to after studying first ladies and knowing some of them very well at my own motherinlaw or one that i married very much, Lady Bird Johnson, is our country benefits by whatever our first ladies interests are. She is the wife of one president and the daughterinlaw of another. Became firstush lady after a controversial election brought her husband, george w. Bush, to the white house. Less than nine months later came the 9 11 attacks and laura bush help comfort the nation while continuing to pursue interests important to her including education, literacy, and womens health. Welcome to cspan series first lady influence and image. Tonight, we tell you the story of the wife of our 43rd president , laura welch bush. Here to do that are two people who know her well to her work. And your heart of the Washington Post is a biographer. Her 2004 book the perfect wife tells the story of laura bush and she has covered the firmer former first lady since 2001. Welcome to the program. He is currently working on one on the relationship between president bush 41 and 43. Nice to see you. And your biography, you referred to the role or the job of first lady as the most bizarre volunteer job in the world. We heard laura bush talk about having her motherinlaw as a role model. Had abouthought she the role of first lady was upended. We talked to her recently. I would like both of you to watch that and talk about how and how ited to that redefined her years as first lady. I was on my way to capitol hill to briefly Senate Committee on her a childhood education. I hosted a summit on Early Childhood education at summer. Going to brief the committee on Early Childhood education when i was getting into the car and a secret Service Agent leaned over to me and said a plane had flown into the world trade center. We just assumed as we started driving that it was some strange accident. Thehe time we got to capital we had known that the second plane had hit and we knew what it was. The secret service came to get me. At first, they were thinking they would take me back to the white house. Regroup and figure out where i should go because people at the white house the staff of the white house were getting the words people in my office, two young women who work for me were kicking off their high heels and running from the white house. I know they expected to have glamorous, interesting jobs at the white house. No one ever thought they would have to run from the white house like they did. Anyway, the secret service came to get me and senator gregg and senator kennedy walked me out to the door and i drove to where i went, the secret Service Building which had been reinforced after the terrorist attacks. Really, i guess, after the Oklahoma City bombing, a lot of them had been reinforced. That one had been. That is where i went and spent the day. Had to talk to your husband or girls at that point . I cant remember. I had logs from the day to remember. I talked to george once i got there. Course, my mother was the one i wanted to call. I wanted my mother to say everything is going to be all right. Of course, i called her and said, everything is going to be all right. I wanted her to say, certainly. You had been first lady about i was with her that day because i was covering her as first lady for the Washington Post. There was some confusion initially as to whether anyone was going to speak. She and senator kennedy made a brief statement to the press who were there. I can remember looking at her it is always remarkable that she twists her fingers at her sides when she is struggling with something that was clearly very traumatic. I member thinking she is wise enough, her motherinlaw is wise enough, she know her lies she knows her life was changed in that moment. She said in a moment when she came to say over and over again was i think we have to make sure we tell them that we love them and that america is a strong country and we will get through this. It was spontaneous and sincere, very much in keeping with her as a librarian and teacher. She dedicated herself to that. Things were very different immediately. , bush wrote a letter to the children of america the day after 9 11. Here is what some of it said. I want you to know how much i care about all of you. Be kind to each other, take care of each other, and share your love for each other. As a nation, we had not experienced anything of this level of catastrophe since the attack on pearl harbor. There wasnt a role model for this. What do americans want from the white house, from the president and first lady in times of extreme National Crisis . Moments whenmany we have the right person for the right moment. I think she was the right first lady. We didnt know what to do. We didnt know how to react. This in the clip you just showed. She said comfort your children. Reach out to your kids. Your kids why you are now. They need you right now. I think that helped us get through that trying moment. Laura bush is the picture of equanimity. She has served texas strong. There is a strength that animates from her. I think we benefited from having her in the white house during that period. That Texas Connection is where we are going next as we learn more about her life. Them, ok, to know where was laura thoren and tell us about her Early Childhood. Works west texas is boom and bust oil country. It is the kind of place you can see for miles away. It shimmers like oz from 30 miles away on the horizon. It is very wide, flat. Her father was a builder. Her mother was a homemaker. Her mother came from texas strong, her mother had managed a dairy farm when her grandfather was away. I think it was ray much a place of who she was. They gave her a place of strength about the land, the prairie, doing for yourself i can her mother when i went to the first time, people were always talking about crying. Women were saying they cried. Beenra bush said having educated at smith, her husband came that back and said we are going to move out there and make a fortune in oil. She said what is it like and he says there is a town nearby called no trees. Her friend who ended up introducing her says cheer members coming up from the supermarket with two little kids and a tumbleweed and a volt like an beetle. She had no idea how to get to her house. It was referred for bidding in that way. It was harsh and forbidding in that way. It made her tough. In her book her book is a love letter to midland, texas. She talks about the sky. Her mother and she used to look up at the sky for hours on end and how important that is to that part of the country. ,hen george w. Bush mentioned that kind of country broadens your horizon. There are no trees. The skys the limit. The 1950s, was supportive. It also could be insulating. How does that shape her . She is an only child. I think that is probably insulating in a way. There werent a lot of folks that came in from the outside. When they did and came into the oil business, it took some time to get adjusted. I think that people had their own hidebound ways of being and their own divide as to where you were in the social stratosphere. Whether you were a wildcat or, odessa, you raise tell in odessa, you raised your kids in midland. There were a certain way of behaving. We went to a church. People depended on each other. They had to because it can be harsh. Larged today has a hispanic population, as much as texas does. What was it like for those minorities . I cant speak exactly is how to as to how it was then. There were three different high schools. When they got together for a year reunion, when the bushes were in the white house, nobody even remembered about the black high school. Ofont think it was a matter overt separation as much as within a certain class because there was oblivious this. When i went back to reporting, going across town to do an interview, they said why are you going over to that part of town . In many ways people kept to their own as it were. That had its own shaping. I know that when she went off to smu, her friends had said they didnt even have a remembrance of some of the race rights going around the rest of the world. Hops, to sodas at the drivein. At that in that way, it was icing. Isolating. Her father died in 1995. Her mother, jenna luis died in 1999 she is still very much alive. Right after the age of turning 17, laura was in a car crash in midland and it resulted in the close and the death of a close friend of hers. She spoke about that. In our recent interview. Lets listen. Mrs. Bush, you write and spoken from the heart about a difficult period, 1963. A loss of faith. Why . Wreck that i car wrote about extensively in my book. The whole time, i was in the hospital not injured really. I mean, i had a cut on my leg and a broken ankle. I was praying that the other person in the car would be ok and the other person in the car was one of my best friends, which i did not know. I did not really recognize that at the time of the crash. His father came up. They lived just past where the corner where the car wreck was and i recognized his father, but i did not understand that that was mike that was there. Because i prayed over and over for him to be ok and he was not, i thought, nobody listened. God was not listening. My prayer was not answered. I went through a very long time of not believing and not believing that prayers could be answered. And it took me a long time and a lot of growing up to come back to faith. The car wreck shaped or in what way in what way . Was she has said about it, and what she mentioned to me about it was that you grew up when you are young and you expect that the world is going to be a certain way. She would have attained that maturity anyway, but it came to her quickly. Anhink that she is antithetic empathetic person by nature and it probably made her less judgmental. About other people. In a way that we dont often see in washington. I think she is much more given to people with backgrounds in things that shape them that we dont know. I think that that has certainly kind of person. She worries about her own daughters, her husband because she has seen at a very early age how a miss cultivation can change everything. In that clip, she talks about her faith. Would you spend some time talking about faith and george and laura bush . Let me mention, she said in an interview i did with her, she grew up out of that experience. There are things that happen in your life that you cant change and you have to find a way to move on. Experience, that while very formative for young girl in midland, texas, was helpful to her in the days after 9 11. She had seen the role that faith could play in this world. That fate could play . That fate could play. To realize that you have to move on, you have to the strong. It is very helpful. I think that faith plays a great role in both of their lives. George w. Bush became a bornagain christian when he was in midland. I think it changed his life in a lot of ways. Less she is less vocal about her faith than he is. She is more lowkey about it. I think it is important to both of their lives. Second first lady to have a postgraduate degree. Can you tell us what is important to know about her education and early jobs . People frequently overlook that. They make the mistake of thinking that she is a conventional woman which she is not at all. Interior and has a certain modesty, if that word means much anymore area. It, butt boast about she certainly was very selfdirected and came back from smu and teaching and said she wanted to go on to the university of texas to get a Library Science degree. Her father said now we will never get her a husband. Go on and get her masters degree when many people thought if you went to college at all it was for an mris degree. She very purposely moved into a part of austin which is still the barrio on the east side. And almost entirely spanishspeaking school she taught at. In a dedicated fashion, she do it really chose a school where she thought she could have impact helping kids learn to read. I think that is a part that is really important and that she maintains to this day. I want to tell you how you can be involved in the program. There are three ways you can do it. We have a robust conversation going on on facebook. You will see a picture of laura bush. Join the conversation there. You can also tweet us using the. Witter handle at first lady we will mix up as many tweets as we can. You can call us with the oldfashioned telephone. We would like to hear your voice. There are two phone lines if you live in the eastern and central time zones, the number is 2027488000. If you live in the mountains and pacific time zone, 2027488001. We will get to your calls and a little bit. Twitter, i had a question about laura bush. What she always a republican . I will start off by saying im not a fan of the muppets but i will answer that. Everyone is a fan of the muppets. I think she supported eugene mccarthy. I think she was a cardcarrying democrat for many years. I think she married into a republican family and loves her husband, has great faith in him and his judgment. And supported his platform. She is not a natural republican. Midlande we leave the days, one set of relationships that has carried her through her entire life is a group of girlfriends she made in midland. How important are they to her . The president , they have a strong set of friends who have been their friends forever. Has been a sustaining aspect for them. They have been with you since the beginning. They stand, they know they trust them and have their loyalty. She, particularly, has always treasure going off with them. Even when she was in the white house, once a year, they would have trips where they go rafting in the wild and care for each other. Mostlynoted they are progressive democrats, this group of friends. What clues does that give us about her on politics . As mark said, i think she loves her husband, is loyal to her husband. One of the things i have come to admire and appreciate about laura bush is that she has navigated this is our volunteer job and the aftermath to find areas of commonality with people with whom she might find differences. She would campaign for republicans but i saw her once change a speech made script criptscript mids because the person was attacking a texas democrat. I think she has things that are very interesting to her with her friends that they care about, literature, but festivals. She is very much an avid conservationist and and my mentalist. She is active in womens rights and taking those things on. That kept them grounded. Are people who knew them. I given great comfort when they were in the white house. Both bushes talk about a story of bringing their friends in, president bush having his friend in the oval office. Says bush, cannd you believe it, im in the oval office. Bushes are selfdeprecating. Having a circle of friends around gives them great comfort. Laura welsh and george bush were both Young Persons in midland, texas. Did they ever meet as children . They did not, actually. They attended the same schools. Him. Ays she doesnt recall i think she knew who he was after a time. He was a roustabout from a good family and a wellknown family, certainly, in midland. At one point, they lived in the same building at the shantou chateau in houston. She always had other pursuits. Her friends in midland pick them up. She was 30 years old. He was about the same age. They got engaged and married quickly. That is one thing i wanted to ask you about. This is the portrait you have both painted of a woman, a librarian who was very orderly, very measured. Marrying after four months. She described that brief courtship and the decision to marry so quickly . She had a lot of suitors in her life, none of them clicked. In texas at the time, you talk about feeling like an old maid. By texas standards, she probably was. Here comes this guy, george bush, who was so different from her in so many respects and yet so come from entry. Ary. Omplement one of the things she talks about is that they went out on the campaign trail right after they got married. George bush campaigned unsuccessfully for his seat in congress. They got to know each other so well on the campaign trail. They had this endless hours of driving around the planes of west texas talking about their lives. I think that helped their marriage begin on the right footing. What attracted laura to george, they seem so different . She says he made her laugh. She says she wanted somebody who would make her laugh. Lonely grown up as a only child. She didnt have a brother, sister, her mother had miscarriages. She longed to have a sibling. She liked this boisterous, cut up nature. He wanted someone who was steady. Laura is steady as she goes, would settle him down. I see that in them still. You can never know what is in somebody elses marriage. I was struck when i saw them recently on the tonight show. She said something and tossed her head back and giggled and laughed. They still have a bond. He is funny. During her tenure as first lady, she was at a white house Correspondents Dinner in 2005, she took the podium in place of her husband and talks about the fact that he goes to bed at 9 00 and she stays up to watch desperate housewives. She said i am a desperate housewife. This great rapport. Ribn read each other each other. Good evening. Is it true that lauras interest in afghanistan actually began in the sixth grade . I have never heard that. Can you tell me more about that . In her book and i can give you the page number, but she had to write a report on a country. She and her father went to the globe and spun the globe. Her finger landed on afghanistan and she wrote that in her own book. About how talking exotic it felt to write about afghanistan at that time. I think that when she i traveled with her to europe. T the museum in parisoured werent there are a lot of antiquities from that country and some of the , she is right taken of the idea that you can have a robust civilization and then blown to bits in a matter of days. She was compelled by that. It might have been in her roots from early on to, but, at that was a cause worth being engaged in. He ran for congress right after they got married. And they got married did she know she was marrying a politician . Not exactly. He promised her she would never have to give a speech. He broke that nearly immediately. She knew he was from a political family and she described herself as not being political. When people use that it means that they find politics distasteful. When people say they are not medical it means they dont like it. They think it is nasty and full. F oneupsmanship she didnt have much