<p>bethievt, how did you score that one?? Are you in politics or journalism? I couldn’t even get a ticket to the inauguration, and there were thousands of those.</p>
<p>I did get a tour of the East Wing, and got to roam around the West Wing (2 separate entrances). Standing at the door of the Oval Office, and thinking of each of our presidents and all the history was overwhelming. My biggest surprise was how small the area actually is. The Cabinet room is just a few steps from the Oval, and the Roosevelt room is across the hall. I was not in the staffer offices, though, which I know adds to the space. The room that was the furthest away was the Situation Room, which is locked at all times, so I couldn’t even get a look inside. Boo.</p>
<p>From our experience of getting in the East and West wings, dowzerw, I would suspect that your son’s attempt to crash the WH would be an extremely short-lived project. You might want to be aware that the Secret Service is not known for their sense of humor when on the job.</p>
<p>The day George W. Bush was to be a guest on Larry King Live my two children and wife were walking along Wilshire Blvd. All if a sudden things began to slow down and become very quiet on this sun filled August day. In the distance ( and the Blvd was empty) men in black suits were running towards us asking people to move off the road to the extreme side. I placed my three year old on my shoulders and they left me alone. The motorcade with an open SUV with visible machine guns slowly approached. The Limousine with the presidential seal was a couple of feet from my son and me. The glass is very dark but as I peered inside Mr. Bush was surrounded by men crouched down. As the car passed he pushed his way up against the window ( the car was going very slow) and waved directly to my son. No one else was around me. Even my wife and older son were moved away! I guess the child on the shoulder of a man in shorts worked ! That’s the closest I have come to a sitting president. By the way, the car was headed to the Beverly Wilshire Regent hotel about 500 feet from where I encountered the motorcade. This was 11 months after 9/11.</p>
<p>I have had the great fortune to see every president beginning with Nixon in 1969 when he came to Mississippi to survey Hurricane Camille damage. While I now live in the DC area, most of my sightings have been elsewhere- although all 4 of my Obama sightings have been here. It is always a thrill to see any US President, even when it is one I disagree with. He is still our President!</p>
<p>I’ve been part of “standing only room” crowd last summer to hear President Obama speak. I was excited to attend his speech because when in my life would I be in the same with a president ever again?</p>
<p>My mother took me to a campaign appearance by JFK in Philadelphia when I was a child. I remember it very clearly, even today. I’ve seen Obama, Carter, Ford and GHW Bush. I’ve got a mutual friend with Hillary Clinton so have had the opportunity to meet her several times, and her husband twice. I count my times with her as with a future president. ;)</p>
<p>I saw Nixon in Dallas during the campaign in 1960 against JFK when he flew into Love Field. Missed seeing Kennedy the day he died (Nixonite parents). I saw Johnson once after he did not run again. I used to see President Bush at church in Dallas while he was governor. We spoke on one occasion when my son did the Bible reading. I now see him and (mostly) Laura (usually at Goffs Hamburgers) around town. I was at the private jet location at Love Field on an occasion when the senior Bushes flew into Dallas.</p>
<p>Seven degrees of separation. Laura Bush taught at the grade school I had attended in the 1950s. I had a date in HS with Hinkleys sister Diane (they lived on the same street I did) when the family lived in Dallas before John shot Reagan. I had a close friend who went undercover on campuses for Nixons Commission on Campus Unrest and was mentioned on one of the Nixon Presidential tapes. (We did not know it at the time).</p>
<p>While in law school I did the research for the White Paper on the 1st Amendment positions of the likely Supreme Court nominees if President Reagan was re-elected in 1984 that my law professor wrote for the 1984 Democratic Convention. Only Judge Posner has not been actually nominated. Bork was nominated but did not make it and now Justice Scalia got to go to the dance. My now wife worked with an attorney who was part of Walter Mondale’s inner circle so she got to meet him during the campaign. </p>
<p>I was in the West Wing the night President Bush gave his stem cell speech in Crawford, Texas. We got the special tour because the head of the presidential interns for President Bushs first term had been my sons camp counselor several years before, a fact my then 13 year old only mentioned when I told him we (he, my wife and I) were going to DC for a vacation and I wondered aloud if there might be some way to get into the West Wing.</p>
<p>My manicurists granddaughter was the keynote speaker at the Bushs home in Preston Hollow at a Teach for America event a few months ago. I saw Sarah P when she was campaigning and dropped by the office building where I have my office to visit T. Boone Pickens who is on the next floor. I know Ron Kirk (Obamas Trade Representative for a little longer) from our kids private schools and we used to go to the same private trainer gym to work out in the mornings. Actually my wife knew him before when he was an attorney at the firm where she was a paralegal. </p>
<p>Ross Perot (ran in 1992 and 1996) regularly attended school functions at the private school my son and his grandson attended so Ive met him.</p>
<p>When young, I worked on several political campaigns but my claim to fame is getting a quick hug on national TV from soon to be President Bush (H.W.) in 1988 during a rally when I was working on that campaign.</p>
<p>I took S2 to see Obama when he was campaigning for the Democratic nomination. He was about to get the coveted Kennedy endorsement. The main room where he was speaking was full, so they put us late comers in a small, adjacent gym. We just milled about for a bit and then they said he was coming in for just a minute before his speech in the big auditorium. </p>
<p>S2 (a sophomore in h.s. at the time), slithered and squirmed his way all the way to the front of the stage (no doubt annoying adults who were too polite to behave in such a self-serving manner) when Obama came into the room, S2’s hand was among the first shaken, and the photo pool who was above on scaffolding got tons of pictures. Later I went online, found the photo with the hand shake (not great resolution since it was an aerial shot, but you can tell it’s him. Ordered an 8x12, framed it, gave it to him. Obama wins, he has a photo of himself shaking the President-to-be’s hand, very cool right?</p>
<p>Fast forward four years…he casts his first ever vote for…drum roll…Romney. Only kid I’ve ever known who went to Yale and became more conservative!! Photo is in a box at the back of his closet… :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Hmm, I did see the UK’s deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, speak a couple of times, before he was deputy prime minister. Somehow I’m not sure it counts though!</p>
<p>I attended a performance of Memphis on Broadway about two summers ago and VP Biden and his wife were in the theater.
In an earlier position in my career, I worked for a national organization where we had many prominent speakers at events so I get to meet President Carter after his presidency as well Rev. Jesse Jackson. When I was a kid, RFK campaigned for NY Senate in our neighborhood. I also declined the opportunity to shake Governor Pataki’s hand at Penn Station during his last campaign… Just a few weeks ago, I walked right past Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (okay so not a Presidential candidate) in Times Square right by the Marriott Marquis Hotel along with his security team. I can report that he was wearing a very good-looking suit.
Maybe best of all… in another earlier career, I was at a business lunch and JFK, JR was at the table next to me in the restaurant…</p>
<p>I saw Obama’s motorcade recently on the Beltway in Maryland. First, it was eerily empty on the other side, then the procession of motorcycles began - all with sidecars in case POTUS needed a different exit. There was a helicopter hovering over the mass of vehicles in the middle. Impossible to tell which one he was in, especially at highway speed. I opened my window and waved and then thought I had probably given someone a fright by doing that. </p>
<p>I wondered what would happen if I suddenly pulled over to the left shoulder - but thought it might be true that curiosity killed the cat - and decided to just go on my way. Very exciting. And too bad for all the poor saps stuck in traffic behind him! There had been traffic already, and the temporary closures just made it all worse.</p>
<p>I saw President Eisenhower get off the Treasure Ship at Disneyland in 1961. I was on my father’s shoulders. We waited a good bit on the fake “shore” because he was in Disneyland with grandson David. At the time, my mind was full of Babes in Toyland fantasies. </p>
<p>in June 1974, I attended the Naval Academy graduation as the date of a plebe. The highways came to a halt as we came to the stadium. The speaker was supposed to be Kissinger. It was a terrible time in the Nixon administration. When the helicopter landed on the field, out came President Nixon. Speaking at the Academy is always a good photo op. He resigned two months later, right before I headed off to college.</p>
<p>Stood in line for a couple hours to obtain tix to see Obama in our home town last summer. Glad for the experience. </p>
<p>Seeing Eisenhower still seems like a dream. We only went to Disneyland about three times total in the years my father was stationed in Los Angeles. Were we surprised! Of course David married Nixon’s daughter Julie.</p>
<p>I saw Pope Benedict when he was in DC on his Papal visit in 2008 and we stayed in a small hotel where all of the Vatican Police, Staff and Vatican Secret Service were staying, near the Vatican Embassy. We did not get to meet Pope Benedict, but met many of his staff and Bishops and Cardinals from all over the country. We also saw the PopeMobile come out of The White House only about 12 feet in front of us with him waving to everyone and we also saw him drive into The Vatican Embassy. During that same visit, as we were waiting outside the Vatican Embassy for his return, we saw the Vice President drive into the Naval Observatory (the VP’s home) which is right across from The Vatican Embassy. This was all a chance experience, because we did not even know The Pope was visiting Washington until we checked into our hotel and asked what all the commotion was about. I thought my mother (who is a very devout Catholic), would be so excited to hear about our experience and all she had to say was that she liked Pope John Paul better… que sera sera…</p>
<p>Me too. I was 10. I got his autograph once (a completely illegible scrawl), and shook his hand twice. And he helped my mother pick up a bagful of groceries that she accidentally dropped on the sidewalk right as we were walking past him (he was talking to a police officer).</p>
<p>I got to see Jimmy Carter at Boston College in 1976 when he ran for President and that was it for a few years.
In 2011 at the Flight 93 Memorial dedication in Shanksville, PA on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, President Obama laid a wreath and Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush spoke as well as VP Biden and the Speaker of the House.</p>
<p>I shook Clinton’s hand when he came to IU to speak/campaign for his wife in 2007, he was 4 hours late but one of those people you just wait for</p>
<p>Shook Obama’s hand when he came to IU to campaign in 2007 at Little 5!</p>
<p>Talked to Paul Ryan at DCA when I was flying out for Christmas. Walked by him and was like wait, that guy looks like Paul Ryan. Did a double take, was 99.9% sure it was him and sure enough, it was. Taller than I thought he would be and those ears are Dumbo-esque in person. </p>
<p>In terms of other political celebrities, I’ve seen (but not met): James Clapper, Dick Lugar, and Panetta.</p>