With her signature faux pearls and white hair, former First Lady Barbara Bush became an American icon. But her influence far surpassed that of the wife of one president and mother of another.

As Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief of USA Today and author of The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty, expounds upon in eloquent detail, Mrs. Bush quietly, yet powerfully, impacted the policies in the administrations of her husband and son and shaped public perceptions of sensitive issues in the 1980’s, including the emerging AIDS epidemic.

On this week’s episode of Poll Hub, Page, who received unprecedented (and surprising) access to Mrs. Bush’s personal diaries, joins our round table. Page describes Mrs. Bush’s role in the White House but explains why those years were not the defining moment of her life. She shares how Mrs. Bush’s experience losing a young child to Leukemia served as her guiding light in formulating her opinions and perspectives on the most pressing issues of her time.

About Poll Hub

Poll Hub goes behind the science to explain how polling works, what polls really show, and what the numbers really mean. Poll Hub is produced by The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, home of America’s leading independent college public opinion poll, The Marist Poll. Lee Miringoff (Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion), Barbara Carvalho (Director of The Marist Poll), and Jay DeDapper (Director of Innovation at The Marist Poll) dig deep to give you a look at the inner workings of polls and what they tell us about our world, our country, and ourselves.