President Bill Clinton Honors President George H. W. Bush

[Applause] thank you very much you know when a president is about to leave office most of the time most people are dying for him to go on and get out of there but there are a few little rituals that have to be observed one of them is that the president must host the incoming president in the White House Smile as if they love each other and give the American people feeling that democracy is peaceful and honorable and there'll be a good transfer of power you might be interested to know that the only thing George Herbert Walker Bush asked me to do is to preserve the points of light and now hundreds of milons millions of hours of volunteer work have been done I've always been grateful that he asks and that I listened so when I was leaving and George W Bush was coming in the only thing I asked him to do was to preserve americore and he did and I'm very grateful I thank you when you've had the honor of being president and your ambition is slaked and most of your fights are done all you really want to do is make sure that by the time you leave this earth things are a little better off than they were when you showed up so I set up this foundation and I went to work then George W bush did me one of the great favors of my life he asked me not once but twice to work with his father to help people in need first in South Asia in the tsunami and then in the Gulf Coast after Katrina all told we took seven trips together it was an amazing experience and this man who might always liked and respected and then run against in a painful campaign in some ways I literally came to love and I realized all over again how much energy we waste fighting with each other over things that don't matter it got so ridiculous our Odd Couple partnership that Barbara began to refer to me as her black sheep son you know the one that Strays there's one in every family gets the politics wrong or makes some other mistake this is a story that began with an improbable meeting in the white house between two people who had just fought a tough campaign and all he asked me to do was to preserve the points of light now as a result of that he can virtually do no wrong in my eyes even though he every five years makes me look like a wimp by insisting on continuing to jump out of airplanes I love you

Channel: Points of Light

Views: 1,589,737

Keywords: George H. W. Bush (US President), Bill Clinton (US President)

Id: _d4sDwFgNYQ

Length: 3min 31sec (211 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 27 2014