Dude, Where’s My Coat?

ED: Now, George Washington may have been the first president to be so self conscious about his clothes on inauguration day. But plenty of others have paid special attention to dress codes as well. Take for instance, George H. W. Bush.

TIM MCBRIDE: We did have one funny little event take place.

ED: This is Timothy McBride. When Bush became president in 1989, McBride was serving as his personal aid.

TIM MCBRIDE: Just moments before he was to go out on the inaugural stand, he noticed that Mrs. Reagan was bundling up President Reagan quite tightly to ensure that he didn’t catch a chill. It was a somewhat balmy day. And President-elect Bush had already told me he would not be using his overcoat. So we left his overcoat in the limousine.

When he saw that Mrs. Reagan was bundling up President Reagan, he turned to me and said I need my overcoat. He had this great concern that the perception would be that he was heartier than President Reagan. I said, but, sir, it’s four stories below where we are right now and you’re about to be taken out to the inaugural stand.

So I quickly asked if my coat would do, which was a gray wool overcoat, same size. He put it on, walked out in my coat, and then promptly took it off and was sworn in without a coat. What strikes me most about that story and about that man is on the day that one could argue is the most important day of his life, what he was worrying about was in some way trying to upstage the man for whom he’d been vice president for the last eight years. I was very touched by that display of respect for President Reagan that Mr. Bush showed.

BRIAN: That’s Tim McBride. He’s a former aide to the first President Bush.

ED: It’s time for a short break. When we come back, we’ll look at the greatest inaugural address ever given, an address that at the time just made people shrug.

PETER: You’re listening to BackStory. We’ll be back in a minute.