Meeting with the President

Decided to blog about this subject because it's just too interesting not to.

This May, my father (who runs a magazine out of Chicago) received a phone call from the White House. He was asked if he would be willing to attend a Q&A session with the President the next day. Not being one to pass up an opportunity he hopped onto a plane and did have that meeting.

He was there with about 10 journalists for an hour. My father noted in an email afterwards that they were not instructed on what questions they could ask and that although they were informed before the meeting that it would only last for 30 mins., the meeting went for a full hour.

I'm pasting a few of the comments that my father made in an email afterwards that I think are interesting. I have a photo too of the meeting that I won't post online (until I can figure out how to put it up on Blogger without having to host it somewhere else).

Although I really don't care for Bush I was glad that my father had the chance to be there and in retrospect, it was exciting to know that for even just one hour there was one degree of separation between myself and the President.

I should note too, that when my father shot off a quick email informing the family that he was on his way to the White House for an impromtu meeting, my siblings shot back some very snide comments. My sister Sharon recommended that he wash his hands afterwards and since this was a few days after Bush's biking accidents, I recommended that he stare at the scrape on his chin. My father was not amused.

Here are some things that were in my dad's email

...We met in the Roosevelt Room, just a short step down the hall from the Oval Office. I saw the Nobel Peace Prize of T.R.

...We were told the meeting would be 30 minutes; it was a full hour.

...I expected it would be clear that he expected something from us; it wasn't. I was told that the media office likes to get in various groups for the Pres to meet and talk about issues. In short, I didn't get the feeling of political manipulation.

and to sum it all up....

What you see is what you get with GWB I think. Sincere, not an intellectual. He said he does not care how history regards him. That may be hard to believe, but maybe it's true.

All interesting stuff.