George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton didn’t have an immediate rapprochement after their bitter 1992 election fight. In fact, it took more than a decade for a friendship to fully bloom.
But when the pair did come together in late 2004 to lead aid efforts in tsunami-ravaged South Pacific disaster zones, it made for one of the warmest post-White House partnerships in recent memory. Bush and Clinton went on to repeat their humanitarian work a year later, domestically, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. With the 41st president’s son, George W. Bush, ensconced in the Oval Office, both missions took on a sheen of bipartisanship in an era of sharp political divisions.
Bush had long had good reason to be sore at Clinton, who upon taking office in 1993 ended 12 straight years of Republican presidents and, going back to 1968, 20 of 24 years in which the White House was in GOP hands.
The Arkansas governor’s campaign was a generational challenge to the elder statesman, age 68. At 46, Clinton was the same age at the president’s oldest son. And Clinton’s unofficial campaign slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid,” highlighted the hard times many Americans were enduring economically. It seemed a direct slap at alleged indifference to domestic issues by Bush, the one-time foreign policy savant who only 18 months before boasted sky-high approval ratings that scared off other would-be Democratic rivals.
Once Clinton prevailed and replaced Bush in the Oval Office in January 1993, it took years for their relationship to warm. Bush did return to the White House, with other living presidents, in the fall of 1993 to support passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The pair also briefly reconciled in February 1995 when, along with former President Gerald Ford, they played golf together at a course in Palm Springs, Calif.
But relations were generally formal and cool. The Bush family even got a measure of political redemption in 2000 when Texas Gov. George W. Bush beat Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, in a tight race that came down to 537 votes in Florida.
After the tragedy of 9/11, though, the George H.W. Bush-Bill Clinton relationship really started to thaw. As former commanders-in-chief, each could appreciate challenges the current Oval Office occupant faced. And time mellowed some of the rougher edges of their distant presidential campaign against each other.
Bush and Clinton partnered on various relief missions and spoke glowingly about each other in public. In a 2013 C-SPAN interview, former first lady Barbara Bush described their friendship this way: “I love Bill Clinton. Maybe not his politics, but I love Bill Clinton.” The former first lady continued: “My husband, Bill Clinton and I have become friends, and Bill visits us every summer. We don’t agree politically, but we don’t talk politics.”
Bill Clinton returned the favor Saturday in statement with former first lady Hillary Clinton.
“He never stopped serving. I saw it up close, working with him on tsunami relief in Asia and here at home after Hurricane Katrina. His remarkable leadership and great heart were always on full display. I am profoundly grateful for every minute I spent with President Bush and will always hold our friendship as one of my life’s greatest gifts.”
