|
|
|---|
|
American Politics Journal Atrios Barry Crimmins Betty Bowers Buzzflash Consortium News Daily Howler Daily Kos Democatic Underground Disinfotainment Today Evil GOP Bastards Faux News Channel Greg Palast The Hollywood Liberal Internet Weekly Jesus General Joe Conason Josh Marshall Liberal Oasis Make Them Accountable Mark Morford Mike Malloy Political Humor - About.com Political Wire Randi Rhodes Rude Pundit Smirking Chimp Take Back the Media Whitehouse.org More Links |
Subject: My Brush with Greatness
It was October 30, the
weekend before the '92 election.
My sister and her husband were staying
in the hotel opposite WOR Channel 9 in NJ, and by pure luck,
Bill Clinton was doing a televised town hall meeting. We couldn't get
in and went back to the hotel.
We were watching the news when it was
announced Clinton would later that day, be the first politician
EVER to give a speech on AIDS. Remember, Reagan never uttered the word.
We decided to go see him
and went downstairs.
When we got out of the elevator, a
Secret Service guy straight out of central casting, told us to stand
still.
Then we saw him. Bill Clinton. Tall, ruddy complexion, and so
comfortable with who he is.
They'd barricaded an area for people to meet him on the other side of
the lobby.
But his eyes surveyed the room in an instant and he spotted a woman in
a wheelchair next to me and
strode over to her. He called her by her first name, shook her
hand and chatted like old friends.
He looked up at me and said 'Hello, I'm
Bill Clinton. Where are you from?"
My throat went dry, my lips stuck to my teeth and I finally squawked
out:
"Allll bany!"(my home is in a rural area 25 miles away but that didn't
come to mind)
He broke into a big smile and shook my
hand and acted like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Then he went back over to meet those waiting. For the next several days
I couldn't believe how I'd acted;
tongue-tied and so stupid!!. Arrgh! It was not even fun telling people
about this when I got back home.
And, I know this isn't an earth
shattering story but I live in the middle of nowhere.
Its 17 miles to the closest grocery store, but I met the next president
of the United States.
Oh and another thing. When we were trying to figure out how to get into
the town hall meeting
we were standing outside the television studio with throngs of people.
If you remember, Clinton
had been going through the Gennifer Flowers scandal. And lo and
behold, strutting around in
the parking lot was a Gennifer Flowers lookalike.......fur coat, big
hair, blonde of course,
heavily made up to look exactly like her......the vast right wing
conspiracy had to be hiring
these Stepford women to be at every appearance he made.
It was Fellini-esque to say the least.
All that was missing was the dwarf.
Sara
upstate NY