10/02/2026
“[George H.W. Bush] is the only man ever elected president by being nice,” his campaign manager, Bob Teeter, once told me.
During my visit to the Bush Presidential Library (George and Barbara Bush Foundation) at Texas A&M University last week, I told stories from my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, about my twenty months of working with President Bush.
I am among the hundreds who have a stack of handwritten George Bush thank-you notes. He was an excellent executive, giving me free rein to come up with an education plan, to recruit a team, and to help implement it. As president, he set an admirable example, always correct in behavior, self-effacing, and putting the country ahead of himself. He was most comfortable with national security and foreign affairs, and, arguably, no president was better at it. His demeanor and skill in handling the disintegration of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany, and his decisiveness, combined with restraint in the Gulf War, set a high standard.
He was devoted to Barbara Bush and, when seen up close, good humor ran through their relationship. One evening, the Bushes invited Honey and me to join them at Ford’s Theatre. When we arrived, the Secret Service helped the president out of the limousine, while Barbara remained in the back seat. “I’ll get the door, George,” Barbara said, and helped herself out of the vehicle.
Once, before the president was about to speak, I heard him whisper, “Bar, what should I talk about?” “About five minutes, George,” Barbara Bush replied.
On a bright day in late June 1992, walking across the White House south lawn to an event announcing his “GI Bill for Children” school choice program, Barbara looked at her husband. “George, you have on the wrong coat,” she said. “No one will notice,” the president said. “You go change,” she said.
He walked back to his second-floor White House quarters to find the matching coat while I waited with the First Lady.
In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future.
THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from Post Hill Press.
You can use this link to order: https://www.simonandschuster.com/.../Lamar.../9798895656488.
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