George Bush Sr. on Technology President of the U.S., 1989-1993; Former Republican Rep. (TX)

1992: Understood grocery scanners, despite media frenzy

Unfortunately, a NY Times reporter wrote a story under the headline "Bush Encounters the Supermarket, Amazed." He went after Dad for not understanding how a basic scanner worked. Dad's political opponents seized on the piece to support their own attacks against my father as being out of touch, and soon this nasty fairy tale was dominating the airwaves.

My father-in-law, George Koch, is a former president of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, and noted: "President Bush was one of the greatest listeners that we've ever had. He would never say, 'Look, I know all this.' The reporter mistook his polite and personal way of listening with not being knowledgeable."

$150B for transportation infrastructure; a good beginning

BUSH: I can understand if you haven't seen this because there [hasn't] been a lot of hue and cry. We passed this year the most farthest looking transportation bill in the history of this country since Eisenhower started the interstate highways, $150 billion for improving the infrastructure. I think it's a very, very good beginning. I am concerned about the deficits. And $150 billion is a lot of money, but it's awful hard to say we're going to go out and spend more money when we're trying to get the deficit down. But I would cite that as a major accomplishment.

CLINTON: Let me tell you specifically what my plan does: My plan would dedicate $20 billion a year in each of the next 4 years for investments in new transportation, communications, environmental cleanup, and new technologies for the 21st century. We would target it especially in areas that have been either depressed or which have lost a lot of defense-related jobs.