--- title: 10 Questions With Barbara Bush description: Turning 90, the former first lady reflects on her husband’s favorite pastime, the advantages of age and her second son’s jump into the 2016 race canonical: https://time.com/3908649/10-questions-with-barbara-bush/ author: Michael Duffy article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-04T10:16:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:29:09.964Z article:section: Politics og:title: 10 Questions With Barbara Bush og:description: Turning 90, the former first lady reflects on her husband’s favorite pastime, the advantages of age and her second son’s jump into the 2016 race og:url: https://time.com/3908649/10-questions-with-barbara-bush/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fa7dd402123cdb2/6988535ce20a875f3ca8bb82/barbara-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Barbara Bush Former First Lady White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions With Barbara Bush twitter:description: Turning 90, the former first lady reflects on her husband’s favorite pastime, the advantages of age and her second son’s jump into the 2016 race twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fa7dd402123cdb2/6988535ce20a875f3ca8bb82/barbara-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 10 Questions With Barbara Bush > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Michael Duffy](https://time.com/author/michael-duffy/) ## Michael Duffy Jun 4, 2015 10:16 AM UTC  Former first lady Barbara Bush attends a White House ceremony to recognize the Points of Light volunteer program in Washington on July 15, 2013. Former first lady Barbara Bush attends a White House ceremony to recognize the Points of Light volunteer program in Washington on July 15, 2013. Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images by [Michael Duffy](https://time.com/author/michael-duffy/) ## Michael Duffy Jun 4, 2015 10:16 AM UTC **Your husband jumped out of an airplane for his 90th. What’s your plan?** Not jumping out of an airplane. I am not an idiot. The whole family is coming, which will be fun. **Your husband was President. Your first son was President. Now Jeb, your second son, is running for President. What did you feed those boys?** Obviously too much. **You once said America has had enough Bushes. Then you thought anew. How come?** I am against discrimination of all kinds: race, religion, sexual orientation or whatever your last name is. **What does America need to know about Jeb’s wife Columba? What advice have you given her?** She is a tiny, shy woman with a huge heart. I try not to give my daughters-in-law advice, so they will come visit with my sons. **Are there any advantages to being 90?** Sometimes when someone asks me to do something I really don’t want to do, I can say, “I might not be alive.” It works. **The Clintons are getting a lot of grief about their foundation. Do former Presidents face too many potential conflicts to stay active in public affairs?** No. Former Presidents have a great bully pulpit. They must find a way to use it wisely and well to help others. **You spent a lot of time as First Lady–and more in the years since–on literacy. Has it improved in 20 years?** Not enough, which is why I am letting the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy use my birthday to raise money. It’s sort of embarrassing. Our friends hide their wallets when they see us coming. But we are desperate to solve this problem. We have some exciting new ideas we want to try. I hope you’ll ask me about that down that road. **Let’s do it now.** I was hoping you would say that. We are partnering with XPRIZE to find the best minds around the globe to come up with innovative and technologically driven solutions to illiteracy. It’s a global competition challenging teams to develop mobile apps for adults to create the greatest increase in literacy skills in 12 months. We’re going to kick it off later this year. We think it will make a difference. **So, what have you read lately that you liked?** _The Postmistress_ by Sarah Blake. **Your husband is tweeting. You aren’t. How come?** I promised my family I would keep my mouth shut. **Speaking of which, we have a question from him here. It goes like this: “‘Bar, I plan to jump on my 95th birthday. Do you have a problem with that?'”** Would it stop you if I did? But please land again in the churchyard. You know why I think that makes sense. **What’s the best political advice you have ever received?** Be yourself. Well, maybe someone a little nicer. –MICHAEL DUFFY FOR VIDEO OF OTHER INTERVIEWEES, GO TO time.com/10questions ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3908649/10-questions-with-barbara-bush/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3908649/10-questions-with-barbara-bush/"},"headline":"10 Questions With Barbara Bush","datePublished":"2015-06-04T10:16:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:29:09.964Z","description":"Turning 90, the former first lady reflects on her husband’s favorite pastime, the advantages of age and her second son’s jump into the 2016 race","url":"https://time.com/3908649/10-questions-with-barbara-bush/","keywords":["10 Questions"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fa7dd402123cdb2/6988535ce20a875f3ca8bb82/barbara-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michael Duffy","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/michael-duffy/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4fa7dd402123cdb2/6988535ce20a875f3ca8bb82/barbara-bush.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barbara Bush Former First Lady White House","caption":"Barbara Bush Former First Lady White House","creditText":"Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/10-questions/","name":"10 Questions"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3908649/10-questions-with-barbara-bush/","name":"10 Questions With Barbara Bush"}}]}] ```