What the Presidency of George H.W. Bush can teach us about character and how politics has changed

Jean Becker, longtime chief of staff for former Pres. George H.W. Bush, shares stories from working with the Bush Family, as detailed in her book, “Character Matters.”

Michael Hagerty

| May 10, 2024, 11:16 AM

Jean Becker with her book "Character Matters" — Jean Becker, the longtime chief of staff for George H.W. Bush, is the author of “Character Matters ... and Other Life Lessons from President George H.W. Bush.”

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Jean Becker served as chief of staff for former Pres. George H.W. Bush from 1994 until his death in 2018. She supervised the former president's offices and oversaw the opening of his presidential library.

Before that, Becker worked with former First Lady Barbara Bush as her deputy press secretary during the Bush Presidency, and later edited her memoirs. She's also written a book about Bush's post-presidency years.

AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, File

President George H.W. Bush during a news conference at the White House in 1991.

Now, she has a new book about the former president, told through the stories of people who knew him best: former heads of state, celebrities, employees – all discussing the character of the 41st president, and what we can take away from how he lived his life.

Becker tells Houston Matters producer Joshua Zinn about working for the Bush family and shares an amusing story about having the unfortunate job of having to get the former president to stop doing vodka shots with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at Bush’s 80th birthday celebration.

Becker also discusses what her book, Character Matters ... and Other Life Lessons from President George H.W. Bush, says about navigating today’s trickier political climate. And she reads an excerpt from Bush’s radio address accepting defeat in the 1992 election to illustrate how politics has changed.