Remarks by President George W. Bush at "America's First Ladies"

Thank you all for coming. It seems fitting to me that, for the America’s First Ladies Conference, we actually have first ladies — and it’s my honor to introduce them.

Before I do so, I want to thank Mark Langdale for his leadership of the George W. Bush Foundation. I want to thank Anita McBride for conceiving and sharing what has been a really fascinating discussion — I actually watched some of it being streamed over the internet. I want to thank Gerald Turner of SMU and the SMU folks. SMU is an awesome university, by the way, and we are honored to be associated with it. And Neil Kerwin, president of American University, and his wife Ann have joined us — thank you so much for being here.

I want to thank the library directors: Allan Lowe of the Bush 43 Library, Warren Finch of the Bush 41 Library — and, look, I’ll be the funny guy — and Mark Updegrove of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library right down the road.

First of all, I want to say something about Doris Kearns Goodwin. We’re fortunate to have her here. She’s an awesome historian — she really is. She wrote… I read a lot of history when I was president. I can just hear people saying, “We paid you all that money and all you did was sit around reading.” It was fascinating. Well, I didn’t watch much TV anyway. It was fascinating to read history while I had the honor of making history. And there’s no better historian to help a president understand the past — and the future, by the way — than Doris Kearns Goodwin. So we’re honored you’re here.

The other thing that impressed me about Doris Kearns Goodwin is that she raised a son who became a United States Marine — volunteered to be a United States Marine after September the 11th.

I have the honor of introducing the best first lady ever…

[Laughter.]

…Mom, would you take a tie?

Obviously, I don’t mind being surrounded by strong women. I was raised by one, I’m married to one, and I believe we’re raising two.

Welcome, former First Ladies Barbara and Laura Bush.