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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

People: Barbara Bush out campaigning for her son in New Hampshire

Barbara Bush, center, jokes with her son, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, while introducing him Thursday at a town hall meeting at West Running Brook Middle School in Derry, N.H. (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)
From wire reports

Barbara Bush gingerly shuffled behind her red rolling walker Friday, pushing her way through the slush of a suddenly snowy New Hampshire as she made her way into a local diner to shake hands, pose for pictures and order voters to get to the polls for her son.

“I haven’t seen the snow for 1,000 years,” the 90-year-old former first lady said upon entering Mary Ann’s Diner in Derry.

It’s also been a while since the matriarch of the Bush family has been on the campaign trail, but her son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, needs every vote he can grab. The son and brother of the past two Republican presidents is – to the shock of donors who have plowed $140 million into his election effort – barely hanging on in his own campaign for the White House.

In midseason form, Barbara Bush wore pearl earrings, gold bracelets on each wrist and a black, woven coat buttoned all the way up.

In one of the first stops in her two-day campaign swing, she rounded the restaurant while tickling babies, complaining about her husband the former president, and playfully putting her presidential candidate-son in his place.

“You get out of my way,” she told him at one point.

The former first lady also needled a Bloomberg News reporter about former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. She said if the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP runs for president as an independent it will help elect Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“He was a great mayor,” Barbara Bush said. “But I don’t want him to run for president. That would just give the vote to Hillary.”

The birthday bunch

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is 99. Actor Rip Torn is 85. Actress Mamie Van Doren is 85. Actor Mike Farrell is 77. Former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw is 76. Singer Fabian is 73. Actor Michael Tucker is 72. Actress Kathy Najimy is 59. Actress Megan Gallagher is 56. Rock singer Axl Rose (Guns N’ Roses) is 54. Singer Rick Astley is 50.