re: pass it on
Here's an honest to God account of one person's meeting with the President
in Philadelphia last week:
So when the President was here on July 4, I had the opportunity to shake his
hand. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not but I did it anyway, and
said to him, 'Mr. President, I hope you only serve four years. I'm very
disappointed in your work so far.' He kept smiling and shaking my hand but
answered, 'Who cares what you think?' His face stayed photo-op perfect,
but his eyes gave me a look that said, if we'd been drinking in
some frathouse in Texas, he'd've happily answered, 'Let's take it outside.'
A nasty little gleam.
But he was (fortunately) constrained by Presidential propriety. But that was
the end of it until I turned away and started scribbling the quote down in
my notepad, so as to remember the 'Gift' forever. When he saw me do
that, he got excited and craned his neck over the rubberneckers to shout at
me, 'Who are you with? Who are you with?' People started looking, so he
made a joke: 'Make sure you get it right.' But he kept at it: 'Who do you
write for?' I told him I wasn't 'with' anybody and pointed to one of his
staff people who knows me a little, and said, 'Ask him, he'll tell you.'
Then I split.
Half an hour later, my boss (who had helped organize the event we were
at) came up to me and said, 'Did you really tell the President that he was
doing a 'lousy fucking job'?' 'No way,' I said, 'I was very polite, I just
told him what I thought.' Fortunately, he believed me. He wasn't happy with
me, but he believed me. But anyway, if you ever wondered if the Prez really
is kind of a jerk, I'm here to tell you, he is, and I got The Gift to prove
it. I'm thinking of making up t-shirts so we can share The Gift with
everyone:
'Who cares what you think?' - President George W. Bush, July 4, 2001
> Andrew Hudson
> Spokesman, Mayor Wellington Webb
> 1437 Bannock Street, ST 350
> Denver, CO 80202
