I got to know President Bush pretty well while he was still Governor of Texas. He would work out in The University Of Texas' athletic weight room 3-4 days a week at 6:30 in the morning. I was on the same schedule, and we would often be doing the same workouts and had many conversations. I was a government major, so it was pretty cool to recap the debate that he had with Al Gore the night before, and then go to class and discuss the debate. When there were questions about "What do you think Gov. Bush was thinking when he said X?", I had a pretty good idea, because he had just told me what he was thinking about an hour before class.
Since I was in ROTC at the time, Governor/President Bush saw me in uniform quite a bit. He would often shotgun me with questions about pay/benefits and asked for ideas about things he could do to improve the quality of life for the military. He always had follow up questions, always seemed to know the background on the exact issues that I would bring up. He even knew enough about me to turn me down when I offered to escort his daughter to his inauguration ceremony: "Let's see, football player, Navy guy, I don't think so."
I know that his Presidency has been very hard on him personally. He had a lot of things that he wanted to accomplish with education and the economy. Then, a few months into his time in office, the World Trade Center gets blown up, and we have been in a two front war for the past 7 years. It was not exactly what he had in mind when he took the job, but we are lucky that he was the man in office when it happened. He has made mistakes, sure. None of those mistakes were from a lack of integrity, and he has never forgotten the importance of his role as Commander in Chief. I have been lucky enough to know him as a person, and I consider it an honor to serve under his authority.