I first met George H.W. Bush, who died Friday at age 94, not long before he was elected as Ronald Reagan's vice president in 1980. At the time, if anyone was predisposed not to like the future vice president and president, it was me.
In 1980 I was holding my first job in politics, working as a press aide to former Texas Gov. John B. Connally – who, like Bush and Ronald Reagan, was seeking the 1980 Republican presidential nomination.
None of Connally's aides had anything nice to say about Bush. Apparently, Texas wasn't big enough for the two of them. I had no personal knowledge of Bush and therefore, no reason to doubt the negative comments.
