If you ask the president how he's changed, he'd probably "do one of those man noises — kind of sputter — and shrug his shoulders," said Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, his former top domestic policy adviser and an old friend from Texas.

She isn't the only one to say she thinks the president's marriage has gotten stronger during his two-term presidency.

"They're kind of stranded on a desert island together," Spellings said. "They have a shared experience that nobody else has from dawn to dusk. They communicate a lot. There are a handful of people alive in the world who have had that kind of experience."

O'Neil, who introduced the president and Laura Bush in the 1970s, says he thinks the two are ready to return home to Texas.

"He's not bitter or anything like that," O'Neil said. "I asked him one time, 'Would you like a third term?' He said, 'No way.' That kind of tells it all. He didn't say 'Hell no.' But he said 'No way. Two terms is enough."'