It’s the Talk That Got Small

Our guest colloquists are Mitt Romney, George H.W. Bush, and Barbara Bush, performing at Mr. Bush’s ninth-floor office in Houston.

“Thank you, Mr. President. It’s an honor to be here in your office and in these, uhh, Cabinet-style chairs. Is that right?” Romney asked.

“Exactly,” Bush said.

Romney: “Is this the chair you sat in as President?”

Bush: “I think, well—”

Barbara Bush, to Romney: “You’re in the President’s chair.”

Bush: “They’re all, I sat in all of them. I had to buy them all, as a matter of fact.”

Romney: “Is that right?”

Barbara Bush: “I think you’re in the President’s chair, it’s higher.”…

Bush: “It says on the back what it was, maybe U.N. or maybe vice president.”…

Barbara Bush, gesturing to a couch — adorned to look like the American flag — that sat beneath the portrait, said, “and the couch was a present.”…

Bush: “It’s from Mattress Mack.” (Mattress Mack is the nickname of Jim McIngvale, the founder of the Houston-based chain Gallery Furniture.)…

Romney: “Mattress Mack, I remember Mattress Mack, he’s in Houston, isn’t he?”

Bush: “Yeah.”…

Romney: “Does he make those custom?”

Barbara Bush: “Very few people get them.”

Bush: “He made them for us, two of them.”

Romney: “Very patriotic.”

Playbook [Politico, via @anamariecox]