George H.W. Bush: “Interesting suggestion. His point is, he said not a lot of people would want to have my job, but a lot of people would…”

“Interesting suggestion. His point is, he said not a lot of people would want to have my job, but a lot of people would know exactly how to run it. I think that was the premise. But have you considered, he says, meeting one-on-one with individual people? And the Cabinet, he says, can do their job, but that may not be as representative as you get it down closer to the grassroots. Is that a fair repetition? Not bad, not a bad question at all. Good observation. I do get a ton of mail. And people say, ``Well, you don't understand the heartbreak out there.'' I really believe I do. I don't think you have to have an experience yourself to understand it. Do you want me to put this on a real personal basis for you? Barbara and I lost a child. Some people here haven't done that. I wouldn't suggest that if that experience hadn't come to your family, that you would be less concerned about a neighbor who went through that. We care about it. We are in touch. I read the mail. I hear a lot of cries from the heart from people--many, many ways. Friends reporting of neighbors out of work, whatever it may be. I don't know how to implement what you've suggested. We've done some homework since we've been privileged to live in the White House. When Abraham Lincoln was President he lived right on the second floor of the White House, and he had his bedroom down at one end of the hall, same place where Barbara and I have the bedroom now. And the people could come up and wander into the White House and say, ``Hey, we want to see Abe,'' and give him their view. It was pretty good. I mean, it was a good system in a sense. Now you've got some problems from that, most of them of a security nature. You've got a lot of nuts out there. You've got a lot of crazy people wandering around that you can't take a chance with. Let me think about it. I don't know whether there's a better way to kind of just pluck a name out of the phone book or get some guy that was thrown out of work, for example, to come there as an individual with no staff and no preparation. Maybe there is because I'm not going to shoot it down as a lousy idea. Go ahead.”