Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, who served as President George H.W. Bush's chief of staff, Monday recalled the late president as a person who created a team that "really respected and liked each other," and as a man who set a "great example to anybody who aspires to public life."
"He was a great boss," Sununu told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "We talked dozens of times a day. He ran the White House that way that whenever there was an issue I needed to go see him I just went in and talked to him and got an answer and then moved whatever he wanted forward."
Bush was also willing to make decisions quickly, but that does not mean he made them without thought, Sununu said.
"He let his staff present both sides of the issue," Sununu said. "He let us argue amongst ourselves and then he made a decision, and he really created a staff that liked each other. I think the hallmark of the Bush 41 White House was that we had a team in there that really respected and liked each other."
The four years Bush was in office were busy ones, the former chief of staff said, as the team was working on many things simultaneously, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, dealing with Saddam Hussein and Panama. In addition, several pieces of domestic legislation were passed including the Clean Air Bill and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
"The president was very capable of managing all of that, and my job was the try to keep everything together and keep things going, and he made it extremely easy for me," Sununu said.
Still, everyone underestimates the difficulty of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sununu said.
"His art form was dealing with people in a way that respected their views but got them to come to the right conclusion and move things forward," Sununu said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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