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Short Takes
from BARBARA BUSH: A MEMOIR. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. 575 PP. $25.
The Today show was planning features on each wife and asked permission to follow me. They came along one whole day through New Hampshire, attending coffees and other political events. It was an exhausting day, climaxed by a half-hour interview with Jane Pauley. She was so pretty and sweet-looking -- and managed to absolutely devastate me. We had a polite little interview until her last question, which went something like this: "Mrs. Bush, people say your husband is a man of the eighties and you are a woman of the forties. What do you say to that?"
Why didn't she just slap me in the face? She was darn lucky I didn't burst into tears and say that was the worst question I had ever heard! I was speechless and heartsick. The interview was over practically before it started. After she left, while I was still rocking from the question, I told Becky I was sure I hadn't understood her question. It was so hurtful. A crew member spoke up and said, "Oh, you understood her okay." He conveyed the impression that it was not unusual for her to be so ugly.
To add insult to injury, we got a phone call saying the whole day's tape had been ruined and they'd like to spend another two days with me in Illinois. Since the other wives' interviews were "in the can," the office felt I must do it.
So we started over again with fear and trembling. Jane flew in and met me at a high school to redo the interview. I waited for a real zinger, but surprisingly, the interview was all sweetness and light. Several weeks went by, and then it was my morning on the air. I was very nervous, sitting alone in a California hotel room. The next seven minutes were spent with the Today show allowing me to say in every way possible just how great George Bush is. It was amazing. The man who edited the tape really did me a favor. I honestly feel he did it on purpose. I think he felt we had bonded on those bumpy, scary flights through the storm; that we had been good sports by spending two more days with them after their tape had been bad; and that Jane had been cruel in that first interview. When the seven minutes were over and the show went back to New York, Bryant Gumbel said, "The Bush campaign should have paid for that segment." Lucky me.
