George H.W. Bush Profiled
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=34865
General Information
Source:
Creator:
NBC Nightly News
Resource Type:
Tom Brokaw/Lisa Myers Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
08/18/1988
08/18/1988
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video News Report
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
1988
00:04:23
Description
On the eve of the Republican National Convention, Lisa Myers profiles Vice President George H.W. Bush
who, despite his presidential ambitions, is much more at ease with friends and family than in the limelight.
Keywords
Presidential Candidate, George H.W. Bush, 1988 Presidential Election, Prescott Bush, World War II,
Barbara Bush, Oil, Yale, Gorbachev, United Nations, Ambassador, Vice President, Nancy Ellis, Dorothy
Bush, Barbara Bush, Robin Bush, Family
Citation
MLA
"George H.W. Bush Profiled." Lisa Myers, correspondent. NBC Nightly News. NBCUniversal Media. 18
© 2008-2017 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1 of 3
Aug. 1988. NBC Learn. Web. 28 January 2017
APA
Myers, L. (Reporter), & Brokaw, T. (Anchor). 1988, August 18. George H.W. Bush Profiled. [Television
series episode]. NBC Nightly News. Retrieved from
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=34865
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"George H.W. Bush Profiled" NBC Nightly News, New York, NY: NBC Universal, 08/18/1988.
Accessed Sat Jan 28 2017 from NBC Learn:
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=34865
Transcript
George H.W. Bush Profiled
TOM BROKAW, anchor:
When Vice President George Bush appears in this hall tonight to accept the Republican Presidential
nomination, he’ll be making the most important speech of his political career. The whole country will be
sizing up the man who wants to move up, from number two to number one. And, NBC’s Lisa Myers tells
us tonight, there’s a lot about George Bush that many people don’t know.
LISA MYERS, reporting:
The private George Bush can be very different from the public version. Fun loving. Warm. Even witty.
Vice President GEORGE H.W. BUSH: Yes! Yes! By George, if I can do this…I’m talking about
competence, here. It’s not a question of ideology. It’s a question of competence. I’ve done fixed it.
MYERS: He wrote moving letters to each of his grandchildren, telling them how he felt when they were
born. Throughout his life, he has valued family and friendships above philosophy or ideas.
BUSH: I’m not a mystic. And, I don’t yearn to lead a crusade. My ambitions are perhaps less dramatic.
But they’re no less profound.
MYERS: Family and friends say Bush was profoundly influenced by both parents. His father, Prescott
Bush, was a wealthy investment banker, later a US Senator from Connecticut.
Ms. NANCY ELLIS (Bush’s sister): My father was a…he put great stress on integrity, and service and
doing for your community, or your state, or your country.
MYERS: Dorothy Bush taught her children to be modest, generous, and always considerate of others.
ELLIS: And his caring about people, and his kind-heartedness. He got that message.
MYERS: Young George was the second of five children, but always the star. Of his family, of his prep
school, later at Yale. His childhood was a dream. Chauffered to school in a limousine, summers in Maine.
The day he turned eighteen, Bush surprised his family by joining the Navy, becoming its youngest pilot.
In September, 1944, Bush’s plane was hit while on a bombing run.
BUSH: And smoke started pouring out of this airplane, and I dropped my bombs. Then, as trained, headed
© 2008-2017 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2 of 3
out to sea.
MYERS: Bush was pulled out of the Pacific by a submarine, and awarded a medal for bravery.
After that, he married his teenage sweetheart, Barbara, graduated from Yale, and started his own oil
company. But in 1953, tragedy struck. The Bush’s three year-old daughter, Robin, died of leukemia.
BARBARA BUSH: After she died, it was a terrible time in our life. And, George had had trouble during
her sickness, because he loved her so. And, I was sort of strong, then. And then, afterwards, I really sort of
fell apart. Sort of hard for me to talk about. But, he just put his arms around me and did not let me step
away.
MYERS: From the beginning, the public part of public life has been difficult for Bush. He often seems
awkward and inarticulate.
BUSH: And there are some things that are artificial. The funny hat. The dancing with somebody, when I
know I do that badly. ‘Hey, here’s a baby you gotta kiss’ kind of thing. I don’t like that.
Sen. ALAN SIMPSON (Republican, Wyoming): He is a man raised I think, with a…with an attitude that
you don’t pound your own drum. And that’s probably one thing, right now, that has slowed him a bit.
MYERS: He’s far more comfortable playing horseshoes with his sons, and poking fun at his preppy
image.
Among his legion of friends, there was never any question what kind of Vice President Bush would be.
Mr. THOMAS ASHLEY (Bush’s Friend): Loyalty has been his middle name since he was about five
years old. And I don’t think that’s always been easy. In fact, I know it hasn’t.
BUSH: I don’t have to do this. I’m 63 years old. And I could be over here in Maine listening to the waves
pound in on the shore over there. My feet up. Have a beer. Tell Dorothy’s children what it was like to sit
across from Gorbachev. And, take part…take part in a great revolution. But, I’m not done, yet.
MYERS: Bush says, that of all his accomplishments, Ambassador to the United Nations, to China, the
Vice Presidency---there is one of which he is most proud. And that’s that his children still come home.
Lisa Myers, NBC News, Washington.
© 2008-2017 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3 of 3