George W. Bush Shared A Story Of The Time He And His Dad Went Striper Fishing With Vladimir Putin

In his book ’41: A Portrait of My Father’, our nation’s 43rd President George W. Bush shares a story of the time that he and his father (our nation’s 41st President) hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at their family vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

George ‘Dubya’ Bush asked his father to set up the fishing trip as a de fact meeting about missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland, and Vladimir Putin came along to catch some stripers in Maine, probably having the most bro weekend of his life.

BusinessInsider.com recently shared the story from George W. Bush’s book:

“In early 2007, I called Dad and asked him if he would invite President Vladimir Putin of Russia to Walker’s Point (the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine),” Bush writes in his new book 41: A Portrait Of My Father.
Former president George H.W. Bush was thrilled to process the request. “Just let me know what you need, son,” he said.
“When Putin arrived on July 1, 2007, Dad met his plane at the airport in New Hampshire and accompanied him on the helicopter ride to Walker’s Point. Then he took both of us for a speedboat ride,” Bush writes.
“Although initially startled by the idea of a eighty-three-year-old former President driving the boat at top speed, Putin loved the ride. (His interpreter looked like he was about to fly out the back of the boat.)
“The next morning, we had a long conversation about missile defense, in which we found some common ground. We then went fishing. Fittingly, Putin was the only one who caught anything,” according to the memoir.

In 2016 I couldn’t even fathom Obama inviting Vladimir Putin to America to go fishing. The political climate’s changed, Russia’s grown tired of no longer being a world superpower and wants to assert itself on the global scale, and Obama just doesn’t seem like the kind of dude that would invite another president to go fishing (golfing maybe).

What I find interesting about this is that ever time George W. Bush was up at his family house in Maine the press would dog him for being on vacation. George W. Bush is reported to have taken more vacation days than Obama, Clinton, and Reagan (more than Clinton and Obama combined). This has me wondering if a portion of those vacation days weren’t Dubya just getting his work done outside of the White House.

Anyways, if you dug this story and want to read more like it then you can purchase ‘41: A Portrait of My Father‘ for $14.99 on Kindle, $17.72 Hardback, or $16.38 for Paperback on Amazon by clicking that link!

George W. Bush image courtesy of Shutterstock.com