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the
more hostile turnover i was involved in
was bill clinton coming in for george
h.w bush and i ran that entire
transition was a
very friendly transfer of power
even though it was done under the
hostile conditions of a defeated
president running for his second term
not winning
and a young upstart governor of arkansas
coming in to replace him that he didn't
want to get into a full-scale press
conference
but the tone was set at the top and
president george h.w
bush made sure we were all very
cooperative that was i think
a model transition from a one-term
president to a new president when the
one-term president had hoped he would
have a
second term
even though we had a contested election
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with vice president gore back in 2000
out of professional respect and courtesy
i think by and large the staff are
courteous to each other from bill
clinton
to george w bush was definitely more
challenging
there were some sophomoric pranks that
were played on the white house staff
when they showed up and
yes there were many computers had
drilled out the w
and the w's had been taken off the
keyboards it's sort of a tease or a
taunt to me but by and large they're
very friendly and they're very peaceful
because i think people recognize
regardless of party affiliation
it's about the country and it's not
about you and there were some
telephones that had been switched around
so if you went to call
one office it rang in a different office
but i viewed those as kind of
fraternity pranks it was disruptive
but it wasn't dangerous
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george h.w bush was definitely
disappointed that he didn't win
reelection
and he was depressed here's the way we
see it
the country should see it that the
people have spoken but at the same time
he was celebrating our democracy
and he knew the mark of a great
democracy is its ability to transition
from one leader to another leader
even though he didn't want that transfer
to happen
i just called the governor clinton over
in little rock and offered my
congratulations
and one of the occasions i asked him mr
president
how did it feel to lose the presidency
and he looked at me and he said i felt
like i let my family down i felt like i
left
my supporters down but i felt that i did
everything i could for the country
and it was such a personal and
interesting
and intimate conversation with him that
he worried more about those around him
than he worried about the impact of
losing the presidency
as it related to him personally
you