In today’s political climate, it can feel like every disagreement is personal. But some of the most powerful partnerships in American politics were built between people who couldn’t have disagreed more — proving that respect and friendship can survive even the deepest ideological divides.
President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill
The former Republican president and Democratic house speaker from Massachusetts didn’t always see eye-to-eye on fundamental political questions, but respected each other as public servants and worked across the aisle to find common ground.
“Historic tax reforms, seven tax increases, a strong united front that brought down the Soviet Union — all came of a commitment to find common ground,” O’Neill’s son Thomas O’Neill wrote in the New York Times in 2012.
“While neither man embraced the other’s worldview, each respected the other’s right to hold it. Each respected the other as a man.”
When Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981, O’Neill went to the hospital to visit the president and pray at his bedside. And after O’Neill’s death, Reagan headlined fundraisers to raise the money to build the O’Neill Library at Boston College, O’Neill’s alma mater.
John Boehner and Barack Obama
The former Democratic president and Republican house speaker from Ohio often clashed on policy — famously so when the 2011 “grand bargain” budget deal fell apart — but still maintained a respectful working relationship while Boehner was speaker.
The two would famously discuss strategy and hash out disagreements in the Rose Garden outside the White House, during which Boehner would smoke cigarettes and Obama, a former smoker, would chew nicotine gum.
Boehner even recalled having to “sneak in” into the White House to meet with Obama to avoid the press from “going crazy.”
“We were having a nice conversation and finally the president says, ‘Boehner, man, I’m going to miss you,'” Boehner said of Obama’s phone call to him after he retired as Speaker of the House in 2015.
Boehner even made a cameo in a comedic video Obama showed at the 2016 White House Correspondents Dinner during which they joked around and watched “Toy Story.”
“I understand him, he understands me, and while we had big disagreements, we were able to get an awful lot of things done, somehow. Don’t ask me how,” he added.
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Senator John Kerry and Senator John McCain
John Kerry and John McCain shared the distinct path of serving in the Vietnam War to being elected to the US Senate.
McCain famously spent six years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, while Kerry — a former Navy officer — led a signature protest in which a thousand Vietnam veterans tossed medals and ribbons won in the war over a barricade into the vicinity of the US Capitol.
While McCain strongly disagreed with Kerry’s protest at the time, the two ended up working together on Vietnam veterans issues while serving on the former select Senate committee on POW/MIA soldiers.
“We got to know each other and began to work together on some things, particularly on the normalization and lifting of the embargo with Vietnam. And John was willing to tackle things that a lot of other people weren’t willing to tackle, so we found some common ground in strange places,” Kerry told NPR in 2017.
Bill Clinton and both Bush presidents, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush
During the 1990s, President Bill Clinton clashed with both his predecessor and the man who would replace him.
But during the 21st century, Clinton’s relationship with the Bushes became decidedly more amicable, with all three former Presidents expressing newfound respect and admiration for each other.
They’ve gotten so close that George W. now refers to Clinton as his “brother with a different mother,” and his daughter Jenna calls Clinton “Uncle Bill.”
Clinton and George H.W. Bush traveled together to help with relief efforts after a tsunami struck Southeast Asia and then later to the site of Hurricane Katrina, becoming fast friends along the way.
Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Ted Kennedy
“I have to say that we became very dear friends. That doesn’t mean we didn’t fight each other. We fought each other like tooth and tongue but afterwards, we’d put our arms around each other and laugh about it,” Hatch told NPR in 2009 after Kennedy’s death.
“And we passed a lot of very important legislation together, and I will greatly miss him,” he added.
Hatch recounted one instance where Kennedy tried to convince Hatch to agree with him on a provision of a bill by having his chief of staff “serenade” Hatch, a songwriter, with a song he had written.
Hatch also wrote a song dedicated to Kennedy, which he titled “Headed Home,” when Kennedy was diagnosed with cancer.
