Meeting POTUS
Even though I’d been in the presence of Barack Obama three times during my work in the 2008 presidential campaign, I’d never had the opportunity to meet him. So when I got a call last Sunday from Lindsay Siler, the state director of Organizing for America, asking if I’d like to meet the President after his Wednesday town hall in Raleigh, my response in the affirmative was swift. I mean, how do you turn down an offer like that? Well, after you’ve worked your butt off for this guy and you still fundamentally support his agenda and the direction he wants to lead our nation, you don’t.
We managed to round up a ticket for Shonnie to the town hall, and the two of us took off from Asheville for Raleigh on Tuesday night, a four-hour drive that included raging thunderstorms and brilliant displays of lightning. We rolled in to Raleigh and the home of our friends Bob and Kathy Phillips, who we know from our runs and hikes at the Lake Eden Arts Festival each spring and fall. Bob is the executive director of NC Common Cause, so we talked politics for around an hour and got to bed a bit later than intended. Nonetheless, I lay awake for at least an hour, excited about what the next day might bring.
Though the event wasn’t scheduled to begin until 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, I had to be there at 10:00 a.m. and was seated right next to the stage where President Obama would speak and take questions. Shonnie was in the upper bleachers but still had a good view to take lots of photos. I met and chatted with the nine other folks who had been chosen to meet the President as a result of our work during the campaign and afterwards, and we waited eagerly for things to get underway.
President Obama arrived around noon, spoke for 15 minutes or so, then took questions, which he answered astutely and in depth. At the end of the formal part of the event, we were led backstage to await the President. As we stood there, I thought about what I might say to him (“It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. President.” or “I was the oldest field organizer in your campaign, Mr. President. Yes, sir, 66 is the new 65.” or What are you going to do about the Blue Dogs holding up that robust public option?), however, it was a pretty straightforward affair. “Who do we have here?” asked the President as he strode toward us. And we each introduced ourselves and shook his hand. Then he posed for a photo with our small group, bid us farewell and was whisked off to a group of elected officials. I also got an autographed photograph of the President as a lasting memento of this encounter.
It’s possible you might want to know if I’m ever going to wash my hands again. FYI, yes, I am.
Thursday, July 30th, 20091 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
SO IMPRESSED BY YOU!!!!
Love,
Annie
Comment by Annie — July 31, 2009 @ 10:10 am