For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
October 7, 2004
Remarks by First Lady Laura Bush on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Nbc Studios Burbank, California October 6, 2004
7:25 P.M. PDT
Q It's good to see you again.
MRS. BUSH: Very nice, glad to be here. Thanks a lot.
Q I know you're very concerned about education and literacy. I
just wonder if you saw our two young people -- those are --
MRS. BUSH: That's why we have education reform. (Laughter.)
Q I was cringing back there. I went, perhaps this isn't the
night to show this.
MRS. BUSH: Exactly. (Laughter.)
Q Are you surprised when you see that kind of thing?
MRS. BUSH: I am surprised, I'll have to admit, pretty surprised.
I thought they were actors.
Q No, no, no, by the hand of God, you can't find actors to do
that. (Laughter.)
And you look -- I don't mean -- is that a new hairstyle? It looks
very, very nice.
MRS. BUSH: Good. Thanks, Jay.
Q Very pretty. Very pretty. (Applause.)
Going back to your natural blond then?
MRS. BUSH: Yes, exactly. Only my hairdresser knows for sure.
(Laughter.)
Q It looks lovely. I know you're out here, you're
campaigning. Where have you been in the last 24 hours?
MRS. BUSH: I left Washington yesterday morning. I came through
Milwaukee and then Reno, ended up in California last night. And then
this morning, I spoke to a very powerful group, the Fortune Magazine's
Most Powerful Women group, which was really terrific. (Applause.)
And these are women who are leaders in every field, politics and
business, a lot of business leaders. And one thing I think you'd be
interested in is a lot of them are mentoring women in Afghanistan.
Q Oh, cool.
MRS. BUSH: They're working with women in Afghanistan, either to
start businesses themselves, micro-businesses. Or one, like Pat
Mitchell from Public Television, has mentored two women who want to be
journalists. They've done a show which will be on television later
this fall called Afghanistan Unveiled.
Q That's wonderful. My wife will be thrilled to hear that as
well. (Applause.)
MRS. BUSH: Great. I hope she will be.
Q Well, you know, this seems like a turnaround, because you
were somewhat reluctant to campaign at first. Now you're going
gangbusters here.
MRS. BUSH: Well, it actually is pretty much fun.
Q Do you enjoy it now?
MRS. BUSH: I enjoy it a lot. I like visiting with people.
Politics is a people business. If you like people, then you like
politics.
Q Did you have to do any sort of drills or anything, to
overcome -- because to go -- and it's not just like you're in a little
theater. I mean, my God, you're speaking to the whole nation. Do you
have any things you do?
MRS. BUSH: Sure. I mean, first, I make sure I have a speech.
Yes. That's the number one thing. And then, you know, I was a teacher
and I was a librarian for years. And who would have ever guessed it,
but I think that was actually pretty good practice.
Q Now, Oprah said -- I think it was Oprah said to get over
public speaking you should picture the entire audience in their
underwear. Now, when you're speaking to the nation, that can't be
possible.
MRS. BUSH: No. I mean, let's see. (Laughter.)
Q You don't want to do that. (Laughter.)
Now, I remember your husband promised you that you'll never have to
-- look, honey just go with me on this governor thing and as we move
along, I'll never make you get up -- wasn't that --
MRS. BUSH: That was the promise. It was actually our prenuptial
agreement.
Q Really? Really? Wow. (Laughter.) I would see an attorney
immediately.
MRS. BUSH: This was back in 1977 when we married, he was thinking
about running for Congress, which he did, in our home district in the
Panhandle of Texas. So I said, you'll have to promise me I'll never
have to give a political speech. And he said, oh, no, of course,
you'll never have to. So much for political promises. (Laughter.)
But also, I have to admit, I promised I'd jog with him, too. And I
never did.
Q You never did?
MRS. BUSH: No. (Laughter.)
Q Well, okay, so that works. One cancels out the other.
Let me ask you, when you watch these debates, is it hard for you?
Does it make you nervous?
MRS. BUSH: Sure, absolutely. I'm very, very nervous, much more
nervous than he is, obviously. I watched it from the very front row.
I was with Barbara and Jenna, my girls were with me. And Senator John
McCain was on my aisle when I was watching it. And, of course, it's
very different to watch it in person than it is on television.
Q How about like -- being somewhat dyslexic, anybody who
watches this monologue, I trip over my words. And occasionally, your
husband will make a gaffe, which we will exploit to the hilt.
(Laughter.) I mean, do you guys have fun with that afterwards?
MRS. BUSH: We do. We laugh about it sometimes. Sometimes, we
don't laugh. (Laughter and applause.)
But actually, the fact is, he gives hundreds of speeches and he'll
give three or four in a day. And, you know, after that amount of time,
it's easy to make a mistake or two.
Q How about the faces? Because everyone seemed to say he would
kind of grimace --
MRS. BUSH: That he was scowling?
Q Scowling, you know --
MRS. BUSH: I didn't see that. I was on the very front row and in
person that didn't really show up that much. But I think he said this
morning that anyone who listened to his opponent say that many things
about him would have to make a face. (Applause.)
Q When you don't have botox, you can actually move your face.
(Laughter and applause.)
We'll be right back with the First Lady right after this.
(Applause.)
* * * * *
Q Welcome back. We're back with the First Lady, Laura Bush. I
wonder -- I know how my wife is when somebody attacks me. She gets
very -- I kind of let it roll off. And your husband, he seems -- he
goes, oh, it's politics, people just saying that. But do you take it a
little personal sometimes?
MRS. BUSH: Yes. (Laughter.)
Of course I do. You know, it's really hard. It's much harder I
think for the person who loves the candidate to hear the bad things and
the negative things.
Q Do you turn off the pundits?
MRS. BUSH: Sure.
Q Or do you like to listen to them?
MRS. BUSH: Oh, no, I turn them off.
Q No matter which side, don't want to hear it. Now, you've met
Teresa Kerry?
MRS. BUSH: We met at the debate.
Q That was the first time you met?
MRS. BUSH: That was the first time we'd met. And I could tell we
had a lot in common. We even chose the same color suits to wear for
that night. (Laughter.)
Q That's right. I had a joke but didn't do it. I can't
remember what it was. (Laughter.) That's right, you had the same
outfit.
MRS. BUSH: So now I just want to announce today, let people know
I'm going to be wearing a blue suit Friday night. (Laughter and
applause.)
Q It must seem odd, because you two really have a lot in
common.
MRS. BUSH: We do, really. I really do feel like we're members of
a club. We're the only ones who know right now what it's like for your
husband to run for President in 2004, and I'm sure we'd have a lot to
talk about.
Q Now, your -- the daughters are out campaigning.
MRS. BUSH: The girls are with me. Jenna is with me tonight.
Q Jenna is sitting right over there. (Applause.)
MRS. BUSH: And it's been really fun to have them with George and
me. Funny and lively and I'm sure everyone can tell. And they -- it's
just relaxing and fun for us to have them.
Q Do they give you advice? Do they go, like, you've got to go
to the Gap --
MRS. BUSH: No. They just, you know, complain about helmet hair
that they think I have. (Laughter.)
Q You have helmet hair? You don't have helmet hair now. That
looks -- that looks good --
MRS. BUSH: Well, good. Thanks. Their complaints worked.
Q No, see, I commented on it, the first thing I told you, it
looks very nice.
MRS. BUSH: But it actually is great. They introduced me, Jenna
introduced me this week when -- yesterday in Milwaukee and Reno, and
it's really pretty terrific to hear your girls say a lot of nice things
about you in public. (Laughter.)
Q In public.
MRS. BUSH: It's great.
Q Now, Jenna got into -- I don't think this is trouble; it
looked like just being silly. A photographer got -- show that
picture. (Laughter.)
MRS. BUSH: Jenna, I'm sorry they had to show that.
Q Now what brought that on?
MRS. BUSH: I think it actually was they were being silly. Barbara
and Jenna and her dad were all in the car. And George told me -- I was
on a hiking trip. I was in Glacier National Park so I didn't know one
thing about it. But when I got home he said, Jenna turned around and
said, I just stuck my tongue out. And he said, well you'll be on the
front page of the paper tomorrow, and she was -- (laughter) -- pretty
embarrassed.
Q What do they want to do now? What are they seeing --
MRS. BUSH: Jenna is really interested in education. She's
interested particularly in charter schools, so I hope she'll go to
work, start teaching in January.
Q You know, Kip expressed interested in dating -- (laughter).
MRS. BUSH: Actually, that happens to Barbara and Jenna now on the
campaign trail, when they make campaign stops. People will have their
-- boys will have their Bush-Cheney sign held up with their own phone
number written at the bottom.
Q Now, what's worse, the girls come home with a criminal or a
Democrat? (Laughter.)
MRS. BUSH: Well, you heard Jenna's line at the Republican
convention, just after Arnold spoke and then I spoke, and Jenna
introduced me, and she thanked Arnold for allowing her to marry a
Democrat if she wants to, because he had done that. (Laughter.)
Q Let's talk about the gender gap. Obviously you're out there,
you're appealing to all voters, well, women voters too. But it's
bigger this year than it's been before. Women are 52 percent of the
vote or something like that?
MRS. BUSH: Yes, sure. Women vote. (Laughter.)
Q Well, I know that. (Applause.) I mean, do you see it -- in
2000, it was soccer moms. That was sort of the key phrase. What is it
now?
MRS. BUSH: Well, actually, women are interested in the very same
issues men are interested in. I think that's always the case. Maybe
they're a little more interested in education because of their children
and being advocates for their child's education. But I think everyone
is interested in security and safety in our country. That's just a
fact now after what happened on September 11th.
Q Now, where will you spend Election Night?
MRS. BUSH: We'll be in Crawford, Texas.
Q Oh, you'll be in Crawford? Okay.
MRS. BUSH: We'll travel in to Crawford on that Monday night, get
up and vote the next day, and fly in to Washington. So on actual
Election Night, we'll be in Washington.
Q Oh, okay. And now, in Crawford, do you have like a special
satellite? Or you've just got the TV with the two things, doing this
-- (laughter) -- trying to --
MRS. BUSH: We have a satellite. (Laughter.)
Q Oh, moving on up down there in Crawford. (Laughter.)
MRS. BUSH: Exactly. They don't have cable.
Q Oh, there's no cable down in Crawford?
MRS. BUSH: No cable connection.
Q Now the neighbors complain, them Bushes got that big dish out
there on the lawn -- (laughter).
MRS. BUSH: That's probably what they're saying.
Q Well, cool. Listen, you got a chance to meet -- I know you
have to run now, but you met our spaceship guys.
MRS. BUSH: I met them, and they're great. And the President had
called them and talked to them and congratulated them. And so I'm
really excited to get to meet them back stage. They're geniuses.
Q Oh, yes, they really are. And they'll be out here in a
second.
Listen, thank you for stopping by on your tour.
MRS. BUSH: Thanks so much, Jay.
Q The First Lady, Laura Bush. (Applause.)
END 4:40 P.M. PDT
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