In The President's Presence
Posted at 4:41 AM on February 16, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(37 Comments)
Happy President's Day!
Have you seen a U.S. president, in person, while he was in office?
I saw Jimmy Carter at a rally before he was elected and Bill Clinton making a speech after his term was done. That was interesting, but for purposes of this impromptu survey, it doesn't count. I'm talking about presidents in office, chief executives with all the bells and whistles, history's beloved, frustrating boyfriends, commanders-in-chief spotted while carrying all the burdens and privileges of power.
The closest I came to it was one day in downtown Minneapolis, when I was going out to dinner with my family at Chevy's, (formerly) at the corner of 7th & Hennepin. We were just heading in the door when a motorcade sped by that allegedly carried sitting president George W. Bush. We paused to watch as police stopped rush hour traffic. A helicopter hovered. A line of official vehicles went by. Serious secret service faces peered out intently, and then a limo with darkened windows rolled past, headed for an event at the Target Center.
"I think that was the president," I said.
Rumor had it. Didn't see him. Nice car, though.
Surely you've done better. Americans ought to see their president in person, whoever it is. I have an excuse - I keep strange hours and am uncomfortable in large crowds.
How many sitting president sightings do we have between us? And how far back does it go? Anybody see Kennedy? Eisenhower? Zachary Taylor?
Comments (37)
Good Morning Heartlanders,
I saw the back of Bill Clinton's head as his limo drove to his rally at UMDuluth where we were too late to get in. I think he was on the phone. If we had waited in the cold wet weather until he was finished speaking, he did come out, mingle and shake hands with people, including my cousin's son.
I also saw the Queen of England's profile in her limo as she drove by on the Battle of Britain day in 1965.
I'm like you, Dale, uncomfortable in crowds...so I tend to miss major events like Presidential visits.
i have never seen even a candidate - haven't even been to a rally. i admire the folks that take the time, money, energy to go to the inauguration, for example. i feel the same way about large crowds, Dale. scares me. glad other folks go to the celebrations.
do you have Peter Mayer's Happy Place? that's usually where i am...... no presidents there.
Thanks, Barb.
I'm not familiar with Happy Place, but I'll have a Peter Mayer song for you in a moment.
How's Niblet?
Morning, all!
Thanks for the kind words and the good songs, Dale! That was really fun to wake up to---i'm still grinning :-) Gosh, that pat donahue song sure fills a person with gumption!
I saw the George Bush car go by once, too, over here in St. Paul, on Shepherd Road, and I gave him a not-very-polite salute, but don't know whether he saw it....those darkened windows are unpatriotic, IMHO.
Other than that, it's all been candidates, starting as far back as George McGovern (hey, donna, were you at the election night in 1972 in Sioux Falls?)
Just in case he checks in, happy birthday, tom!
Closest I've come is seeing part of Reagan's Secret Service detail while I protested outside a downtown Mpls Hotel. He was in town for an expensive fundraiser for one of our 80s vintage senators (can't remember which one - I think Durenburger) and I stood outside with the throngs that were across the street from the hotel, ringing it around the block protesting his various socially and economically regressive policies. I do remember a small contingent of pro-Reaganites walking through - but didn't see the man himself.
Maybe I can get partial credit for a former Vice President when he was running for President? I went to a Mondale/Ferraro rally that they were both at (in an airplane hangar as I recall).
In July 1976 we visited Washington D.C. for the Bicentennial. Queen Elizabeth was visiting, and President Ford hosted her, including some event on the south lawn of the White House. Our family was up in the Washington Monument during part of that, and could see the Queen and Ford way down below. We were able to pick them out because we'd also seen the Queen earlier that day coming out of one of the museums and she had a light blue outfit on.
Other than that, the closest I came was shaking hands with Jerry Brown after a speech at Northrup Auditorium (I was more interested in the fact that those hands had touched Linda Ronstadt.) ;-)
Grew up in a radio family. Dad was on the NAB Board so I got to go to quite a few NAB conventions, and they always had the president in office speak at their conventions. I have seen Richard Nixon, Ford, Jimmy Carter, & Reagan...
and heard Hail to the Chief each time. Being on the young side, I was not terribly impressed, but now realize they were each a relatively rare experience comparatively.
I saw Bill and Hillary Clinton at one of the inaugural balls after Clinton's second election. They came in, spoke a minute, danced (I think it was a waltz) and then moved on to the next one. I was standing in the crowd, a drink in one hand, occasionally massaging my feet, which were in unaccustomed high heels. We'd been standing for hours. It's absolutely true that the inaugural balls are boring, except for those few minutes when the newly elected prez shows up and electrifies the crowd. The rest of the time is spent standing, trying to make small talk, waiting . . . .
Sorry, I haven't seen a sitting president (sitting or standing).
I did, however, ask Harry Truman why he dropped the second atomic bomb, the one that obliterated Nagasaki. I suggested that he might have made his point with the first bomb and that a second one could have been dropped on an unpopulated atoll just to demonstrate that the first one was no accident. (This occurred when he visited a college class I was taking in the 1960s.)
While I didn't mean the question to be disrespectful, Truman chose to see it that way. He blew up and began tossing off disconnected sentence fragments while everyone sat there in shock. I think the modern phrase would be that I pushed one of his buttons.
If anyone else ever sees Truman--who was a fine president--I would not recommend this question.
In the fall of 1960 our entire family, grandparents and all, got dressed up on a Saturday afternoon and went to Minnehaha Parkway to watch candidate John F. Kennedy drive by in a motorcade. He was campaigning for president, not yet elected, so it doesn't really count, I guess. I have one vivid picture in my mind from that day - him in the back seat of a convertible, waving and smiling, and looking exactly like all the photos - handsome, young, fabulous.
Our Edina High School Band under the direction of Butler Eitel was selected to play “Ruffles and Flourishes” for President Dwight Eisenhower at (then) Wold-Chamberlain Field in the mid-fifties. We were able to watch him disembark from the aircraft and walk to a waiting limousine. We played other music also, although I don’t remember what…
I was living in Washington,DC and attended the Christimas Eve service at the National Cathedral in either '93 0r '94. President and Mrs. Clinton, Chelsea and the president's mom came in right behind where we were sitting during the opening hymn.
Only time I've ever had to go through a metal detector to go to church.
How about some songs that mention presidents?
Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton includes "Old Hickory" Andrew Jackson.
Or the 60s song I'm taking a blank on, mentions Abraham, Martin and John?
When I was a member of the University of Miami band back in the 1973-74 school year, we performed just before then-President Richard Nixon gave a speech. I believe it was somewhere in Miami. The band was not located very close to him, but from a distance I could still tell it was him, and certainly heard his voice over the PA system. Sadly, I don't remember any of the music we played that day, or any of his speech.
... oops, except "Hail to the Chief", of course!
Niblet (or "Nubby" as we've been calling him :-) is pretty good - i won't go into it but it involves the word "deworming." may have some presidential applications, i guess.
re "Happy Place" - Peter Mayer sang it at a concert up here last summer . i think he said he had a whole bunch of silly songs that he thought he might record someday. had hoped he might have done so. it was delightful.
enjoying the blog this morning - thanks
Good Morning Dale, Mike and HLers,
I saw Gerald Ford at an election campaign rally while I was stationed in Mississippi. The person I was with got an extra "stare" from the Secret Service for shouting out from the crowd. That's my brush with presidential fame...
Sorry this is so late. I had to make a quick grocery run this morning to score some milk and orange juice for breakfast after my constitutional.
This morning while taking my two-mile walk around and around the little track, I learned from "Morning Edition" that President Abraham Lincoln would probably have been a Radio Heartland listener.
Miles Hoffman did a piece titled, "If Abraham Lincoln had an iPod."
It's online at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100675699
"The Lincoln iPod would have needed a lot of memory, as the president apparently enjoyed all sorts of music and loved opera...
"Lincoln liked the opera Martha, by Friedrich von Flotow... on March 15, 1865 — Lincoln attended a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute... Another big favorite of Lincoln's was a kind of "crossover" artist, Louis Moreau Gottschalk... Lincoln was also partial to popular music and sentimental ballads, such as the songs of Stephen Foster...
"Remarkably, No. 1 on Lincoln's iPod might have been his all-time favorite, 'Dixie.'..."
You can also hear Renee Montagne and Miles Hoffman discuss music in Washington's household.
Ok - I must rise to the challenge.
When I was a member of DNC (Democratic National Committee) a group of us from Minnesota were invited to the White House for a briefing from various departments and were greeted by Liza Minnelli who was there that day. She was very charming. After the briefing and bedazzlements we met President Carter and his wife in a reception. We each had our pictures taken but mine looks quite strange because instead of smiling, I was taking this one chance to say something to him - (which was to thank him for appointing so many women). I don't think he at all enjoyed the politics of being President.
I also met, shook hands with and had a brief conversation with Bill Clinton when he was the chair of the Governors National Education Conference (but this was before he was President). I can affirm what everyone has said about him: he is very personable, engaging and smart.
Sorry, no personal presidential sitings.
The topic brings to mind a couple of favorite songs which make a reference to presidents. John Gorka's song about Eleanor Roosevelt giving his father a blanket while he is recovering in the hospital and Greg Brown's Brand New '64 Dodge.
The day after his second State of the Union address, in the midst of the Lewinski scandal, President Clinton made an appearance in downtown LaCrosse, WI in zero degree weather and I was there. Was he looking for acceptance or forgiveness or did he figure that if people seemed to be looking askance at him that it could be racked up to the temperature? I don't know but hundreds of other tolerant and hardy people were there, too.
Must be easier to see foreign heads of state. I saw Pompideaux in 1974, heading up the Paris Bastille Day Parade, smiling...
President Ford didn't even wave when in 1976 our Alexander Ramsey High School/Kellogg High School combined bands played on the White House lawn.
When I was in 5th or 6th grade in Mpls. Ike was coming to town. This was in the 1950s. With a parent's permission, we could get out of school to see Ike. My brother & I took the bus downtown & because we were little everyone let us get in front to get a good view. I remember it being very crowded. In those days, we went all over the city by bus alone.
Well, I don't go back as far as Zachary Taylor, but I do go back as far as Eisenhower. In July 1960, I was one of 50,000 Boy Scouts attending the National Jamboree in Colorado Springs. Ike and Mamie happened to be in Colorado at the same time (I think to visit Mamie's dying mother - really!), and the President either volunteered or was persuaded to ride through the campground in a hastily prepared parade. I can still see him clear as day, in his special bubble-topped car, smiling and waving to the cheering crowd.
Actually my first Presidential glimpse came four years earlier, but this was of one who was to yet to become President: John Kennedy. My parents and I were on vacation in Washington, D.C., and thanks to passes from Sen. Humphrey we were able to get into the Senate gallery in the Capitol while the Senate was in session. My mother pointed out the bushy-haired young senator who was presiding at the time, saying that his name was Kennedy and that he had been in the news as an up-and-comer.
Then, on a trip to D.C. in 1990 or early 1991, my wife and I were touring the White House when the guides suddenly stopped the tour and herded us all into a windowed area where we had a partial view of the South Lawn. The presidential helicopter was on its landing pad, and soon President Bush (the first one) and several aides walked out to the chopper. Bush briefly turned and waved before stepping aboard.
I also have seen Ford, Carter and Clinton -- all after they were out of office: Ford when he spoke at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul in 1984, Carter when he escorted Humphrey on the senator's last trip back to Minnesota (I was among the crowd to greet them at the airport), and Clinton -- along with Hillary -- in the lobby of a Broadway theatre in 2005.
How's that?!
I attended President Johnson's campaign visit to Minnehaha Park in 1964. That was a dry summer, and Minnehaha Falls was down to a trickle. Municipal authorities (I assume it involved multiple jurisdictions) diverted extra water into Minnehaha Creek so the falls would look nice for the visit. This engendered some controversy. The position of one editorial writer was that Johnson's status as a sitting President elevated the event above mere campaign politics. Therefore, the argument went, the expense of the water diversion was justified as an appropriate gesture in honor of a Presidential visit. I was busy finding a good viewing spot in the crowd, so I didn't see the falls that day. Neither, it was reported, did the President.
My company won an award which was presented by President Clinton in Washington DC and I was lucky enough to be part of the group sent to the ceremony. Unfortunately, three minutes into his speech, the fire alarms went off (freak fire in the basement laundry room). He ad-libbed for a few minutes while the Secret Service figured out what was going on (he was good at the ad-libbing). But I was impressed that when they decided to clear the room, Clinton stayed on the platform to make sure all the other company heads and VIPs got off safely first. Of course since it takes two hours of security to get a room filled for a presidential speech, the fire cut the whole ceremony short but he did walk right by me (I went early to get an aisle seat) as he entered the room... four feet away!
I had a couple of presidential sightings in Washington. D.C., where I spent the summer of my junior year in college ('64)contributing to "The Great Society." One Sunday, my friends and I sat about 10 rows back from the first family in church. Later, to thank us all for sweltering in D.C. for a good cause, President Johnson invited all of the student interns to a reception on the White House lawn. He made a brief appearance and said some nice things which made us feel good about our work. I remember wishing Kennedy were still alive and speaking to us instead. We also ran into the president's daughters dancing at one of the parties for interns that summer, if that counts.
Good Morning - I am very impressed with the company I keep here in the Radio Heartland Room - interesting stories! The highest elected official I ever met was the governor of North Dakota. I was in grade school and my poster won the "Keep North Dakota Clean" contest in the early 1970's.
On another topic. I know, Dale, that you asked our opinion about the name for this blog when it started. I didn't see much comment at the time. I think we were all so relieved to be keeping some part of our collective MS experience going that we had no opinion. In addition to that, we didn't know exactly how this blog thing would work or how much we would enjoy it. Anyway, "Trial" Balloon strikes me now as not adequate. Also, it makes me feel like we are on probation. Any plans for a renaming? Heartland Corral? Morning Musings?
The first president that I saw was President Clinton. I was walking back to work in Downtown Minneapolis when President Clinton's motorcade drove by. He was looking out the window and waving. Little did he know what his future was going to bring.
My only other presidential sighting is when I tried to get into the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in DC. President George W. Bush was talking with a group on the veranda. Little did he know ...ummm... what he was in for.
My hat is off to anyone who aspires to be president. It is not a position that I would ever want; being in the spotlight all of the time where one wrong idea could start a war. The horror!!!
I am relieved that we have an intellectual in office again however.
as a sound recordist for film & video production in the metro Washington area, I have had the pleasure of working with every white house family since Jimmy Carter.
Being a guest in the nation's first home is an honor to be taken seriously regardless of your political bias.
We love your show and listen on the computer
best, Mike
I was excited by hearing "Hello Josephine" today as I had just listened to it earlier in the day. In fact, I had an idea to do a playlist on all songs where the title is women's names. How about you come up with yours? Mine starts with Hello Josephine then Stackolina by Tab Benoit and Carina by James Hunter. It was a lot of fun. Paul
> I also have seen Ford, Carter and Clinton -- all after
> they were out of office: ... Carter when he escorted
> Humphrey on the senator's last trip back to Minnesota
> (I was among the crowd to greet them at the airport).
Oops! Of course Carter WAS in office at the time -- that's why he was able to provide a ceremonial escort for Humphrey back home in Air Force One, towards the end of the senator's terminal illness. It must have been late in 1977.
Wow, I slept in on a busy and very interesting day on the blog!
The closest I can come is having met someone who claimed to know the breeder of JFK's English Cocker Spaniel. I did spend some time with Paul Welstone on his bus whilst campaigning for him and just missed out on meeting Michele Obama on a campaign swing through St. Paul. I was working for the campaign and decided my deadline was more important than meeting her since I knew the get out the vote data I was working on was likely to have an impact on her becoming the First Lady and meeting her wasn't.
I have seen four "live" presidents. On Inauguration Day 2009 I saw George Bush and then, two minutes later, Barack Obama. Score! I was on the Mall and had to pick them out with binoculars.
I also saw Bill Clinton in the White House (along with Al Gore, the shoulda-been president) and some years ago, Ronald Reagan give a speech at a hotel in Washington.
Listening to your station here in Bethesda, MD, via the web.
Thanks for all the sightings.
We are a more presidential group than I suspected. What's truly rare is meeting someone who claims to know the breeder of JFK's cocker spaniel. I see that only one among us can make that claim. (Congratulations, Mark).
In the early 70s Nixon came to Rochester. We went out to see the motorcade come into town. They drove so fast it was all a blur. I didn't really care because I never cared much for him. The really interesting thing was watching the secret service guys all over the place.
Ruthie, I agree. When Clinton came to Duluth, he was staying in the Holiday Inn which is attached to the Holiday Center which is where I work. The "secret" service guys were everywhere in the Center and easy to pick out of the crowd.
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