you called the president what?

As I said earlier, President Clinton and I have played golf together a few times. Of course, there had to be a first time. When you’re with a former president, you have to feel your way. What we’ve evolved to is that when we are in public together, everything is appropriately respectful—Mr. President this, Mr. President that—but in private, we’re just two guys.

Up to a point. Hell, the man had been the most powerful person on the planet. You don’t get over that. I guess. How would I know? I’m not even the most powerful person in my house.

The first time we went golfing, Tina Flournoy, President Clinton’s brilliant chief of staff (she’s now Vice President Kamala Harris’s chief of staff), told me, “The president will only play nine holes.” I’m like, That’s fine. It’s cool. I’m okay if he only wants to play one hole. Or we could have a putting contest on the practice green.

So we played. He drove the golf cart—and think about it, Bill Clinton has driven a car like twice in the last twenty years. He’s dangerous on the cart paths. Pedal to the metal even flying down steep hills, on the sides of hills, skirting streams and ponds, crossing a highway where real cars go real fast.

Anyway, on the fourth or fifth hole, he had a putt for birdie. It was a short putt, maybe eight feet. He left it three feet short.

Now, if you play golf, you know you just don’t leave a birdie putt short. And definitely not three feet short. And that’s why a word came out of my mouth that I never expected to say to a president. “You [the word I never expected to say to a president]!” President Clinton said, “Did you just call me a [the word I never expected to say to a president]?” I nodded. Then he said, “Well, you’re right, I am a [the word I never expected a president to say].”

And that mildly blue exchange sort of set the tone for us. When nobody’s around, we’re just two human beings.

That first nine we played turned into eighteen holes. He was enjoying himself. So was I.

Around the twelfth hole, Hillary called. She was off on a book tour. The president told her, “Oh, I’m out here with Jim. We’re having a great time. We’re like two high-school boys playing hooky.”

He and Hillary talked for about five minutes and at the end of the call, he said, “I love you.” I don’t think a lot of people expect that Bill and Hillary are like that. Those people couldn’t be more wrong.

The first time my wife, Sue, and I went out to dinner with them, we noticed that two or three times during the meal they were holding hands under the table. What can I say—I love that.

It reminds me of the way I am with Sue. Every night—and I mean every night—she and I go to sleep holding hands.