“I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand points of light. This is my mission and I will complete it.” [applause] This phrase, “a thousand points of light,” spoke to who George Herbert Walker Bush really was. His life was devoted to public service, to public duty. Bush was a navy pilot during World War II, a member of Congress, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the first American envoy to the People’s Republic of China, the director of the C.I.A. and, for eight years, vice president of the United States. “One tiny sweet potato and a little bit of corn. Good to see you, fellas.” It’s often said that George Bush was probably the most successful one-term president we’ve had in American history, certainly in modern times. He led the United States through the first truly successful military engagement since Vietnam, presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall. “And some believe that the weight of history condemned our two great countries.” And eventually the collapse of the Soviet Union. Here was George Bush — had just won the Gulf War, just won the Cold War — and we threw him out of power. George Bush came from a political family. His father, Prescott Bush, had served in the United States Senate. He went to school at Andover and Yale. The idea that he was too genteel, you know, New England restrained, kind of dogged him. Baseball actually kind of helped define his life. He believed in being a good sport, playing with honor and competing. George Bush was one of the fiercest competitors you’ll ever meet. But he interrupted his education in order to go volunteer for service in World War II. He was the youngest Navy pilot. “Carrier pilots could scarcely wait for this chance to close with the Japanese fleet.” Fighting in the Pacific, he was shot down, rescued by a submarine. After returning from the war, Bush married his teenage sweetheart, Barbara Pierce, and the two of them set off for a new life together in Texas. He created his own oil company, made some money for himself and started a family. He was on the road a lot. He came home as often as he could. And he’s somebody who cherished family. He was a friend builder. He would just sort of show up at dinner time with somebody he had met that day, and Barbara would have to sort of, like, add three seats to the table. And that was the essence of Bush’s politics. It was all about making friends, bringing people together, trying to reconcile different political viewpoints. “I know you and I share a lot of worries about the future of our state and nation.” In those days, most Texans were still Democrats, conservative Democrats, but Democrats. “I hope to have support from all segments of society. And I’m sure campaigning hard in all areas.” George Bush was part of a new generation of Republicans who were trying to convert it. Bush ran for president in 1980, and while he won the Iowa caucuses, he ended up falling to Ronald Reagan. In the end, though, he did well enough that Reagan put him on the ticket as his vice presidential running mate. “… which I am about to enter.” “So help you God?” “So help me God.” “God bless you, George.” In 1988, he ran for president against Michael Dukakis in what was, for then, seen as a particularly tough and sometimes nasty race. “He allowed first-degree murderers to have a weekend passes.” Democrats thought that the campaign relied on race-baiting. But in the end, Bush prevailed over Dukakis to become the first sitting vice president elected to the White House since Martin Van Buren. “America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle.” George Bush believed in this kinder, gentler vision of America, and he wanted to work across the aisle. “Let me just welcome the members of Congress who’ve done so much.” It didn’t always happen. But he made common cause with Democrats on a variety of issues, whether it be the environment, civil rights or foreign policy. Bush was sort of viewed as kind of a kindly, mild-mannered uncle, in a way, mocked by some of the comics like Dana Carvey, who impersonated him on “Saturday Night Live.” “Got out there on that water, got in that relaxation mode, recharge the batteries.” And yet — “Astonishing news from East Germany, where the East German authorities have said, in essence, that the Berlin Wall doesn’t mean anything anymore.” “Today was the beginning of the end of what they called the Wall of Shame.” — he had a backbone of steel. “There’s a new development in this rapidly changing part of the world that we can salute.” He was criticized for not celebrating more when the Berlin Wall fell. But for Bush, that wouldn’t have been prudent. “You don’t seem elated, and I’m wondering if you’re thinking —” “I’m elated. I’m just not an emotional kind of guy.” He didn’t want to rub Mikhail Gorbachev’s nose in it. He wanted to make sure that it was not a moment that could provoke a backlash by hard-liners in the Soviet Union. His foreign policy experience proved to be exactly what was needed at a critical moment in world history. “Just two hours ago, allied air forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait.” The Gulf War was the defining moment of his presidency. All of those years spent making friends proved to be the skill he needed to assemble an international coalition of dozens of countries to repel Iraq from Kuwait. The idea that you could let a problem fester in the world, a dictator like Saddam Hussein, went against the grain for him. And that was founded in his days in World War II. The war proved to be a giant boost for Bush politically. Poll numbers went up to nearly 90 percent, the highest that it ever been to that point for any president. And yet — “There’s more bad re-election news for President Bush.” — he would go on to lose re-election just a year or so later, when the economy took a downward turn. “But how does it affected you? And if you have no experience in it, how can you help us if you don’t know what we’re feeling?” Many Americans thought he cared more about what was happening overseas than in their own communities. Devastated as he was by the defeat — “I just called Governor Clinton over in Little Rock and offered my congratulations.” — he invited Dana Carvey to come to the White House and do an impersonation of Bush to the staff to kind of cheer them up. “The way to do the president is to start out with Mr. Rogers. Then you add a little John Wayne. Here we go. Let’s go over the ridge. You put them together, you got George Herbert Walker Bush.” That’s a real sign of who George Bush was. He had a sense of humor. He was a strong leader who steered the country through difficult times and came out leaving it in much better shape than he found it. In his time, of course, Democrats were really upset at him. They thought he was unfair to Michael Dukakis. He was seen as a tool, by some, of the oil industry. But over time these criticisms tended to fade. People in both parties had come to see him as a model of what a public servant should be. He really was a picture of grace. I traveled once to Houston with President Obama when he was in office. And there on the tarmac, waiting for him, was George H.W. Bush in a wheelchair. I went up to President Bush, I said, “Well, sir, why are you here?” He says, “Well, the president of the United States has come to my city, and I just want to say hello.”