# Closest (physically) you've been to a Head of State? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 19, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110 "2014-03-19T20:11:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/81 "2014-03-20T16:17:52Z")
As a student, with a group of fellow students I had the opportunity to meet and talk with former President of Argentina, Raul Alfonsin. I worked in Chappaqua, NY right at the end of the Clinton administration, so I’ve shaken his hand a few times. I had an actual conversation with Hillary Clinton while she was Senator Clinton. I’m counting her as a Head of State because she was the head of the State Department. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/82 "2014-03-20T16:58:36Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Did he happen to mention that when you die, on your deathbed, you would receive total consciousness? ‘Cause then you’d have that goin’ for you, which is nice. No, he just mumbled something that sounded like gunga galunga, or, gunga lagunga. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/83 "2014-03-20T17:27:56Z")
There are pictures of me as a small child with a man I later recognized as Marshall Tito (President of Yugoslavia). My only distinct memory of him is that when he was with us and we set snares in the forest for rabbits (like partisans would do during WWII to get food), we always caught rabbits. Other times we didn’t always catch rabbits. ---
**Author:** ![Claptree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Claptree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claptree)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/84 "2014-03-20T18:13:12Z")
I was in Kampala, Uganda when they had the big opening of the new mosque. Colonel Ghaddafi and President Museweni drove past about 10 metres away. ---
**Author:** ![dasmili](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@dasmili](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmili)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/85 "2014-03-20T18:25:14Z")
I shook hands with Bill Clinton at the Army Navy Country Club in '97 or '98. I was there for a birthday party (one of my classmates was the son of an admiral), and the president stopped by after his golf game. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/86 "2014-03-20T18:38:42Z")
Shook Boris Yeltsin’s hand when he visitfed the Everett Boeing plant back in the mid 90’s. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/87 "2014-03-20T19:09:56Z")
That reminds me - I was within about 15 feet of Mikhail Gorbachev on the Sparks Street Mall when he visited Ottawa in 1990, and was doing a walkabout. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/88 "2014-03-20T19:10:58Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > **Northern Piper** , your HoS is not even in the same country most of the time! Keeps her out of trouble! ---
**Author:** ![FightMyIgnorance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71e660/32.png) [@FightMyIgnorance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FightMyIgnorance)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/89 "2014-03-20T19:37:19Z")
My parents and I attended a W. Bush rally in Troy, Ohio during his reelection campaign. (I was a kid at the time, didn’t really care or have a choice.) I firmly remember standing on my dad’s shoulders and watching the crowd (literally 2/3s of the town; strong conservative stronghold) crammed in the square in an uproar, mightily cheering “Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! …”. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/90 "2014-03-20T19:55:48Z")
Assuming we’re counting heads of government, I shook hands with Brian Mulroney while he was PM. He’s a little fella! After their tenures, I have: been on the same subway car as John Turner, shaken hands with Jean Chretien on a flight, and watched a very forlorn Paul Martin waiting for his luggage at Pearson. He looked too bummed out to bother saying hey to. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/91 "2014-03-20T22:28:10Z")
In 63 I was a babe in arms, & less than half a block from Kennedy. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/92 "2014-03-20T22:32:30Z")
My wife’s cousin has met, hobnobbed with, and been photographed side-by-side with President Obama. I proudly claim two degrees of separation from him. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/93 "2014-03-20T22:37:19Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > I shook hands with Ronald Reagan. 1986 > [@lost4life](#): > > I saw H Bush’s motorcade drive by. I was in Thousand Oaks when Reagan lay in state, and was at the roadside when his hearse’s motorcade drove by. I left a quick note among the flowers left at the Reagan Presidential Library on the only thing I had to write on - one of my business cards. A few months later I was surprised to receive at work a Thank You card from Nancy Reagan. I doubt she actually signed it, although it looked hand-written; I’m pretty sure it was a machine. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/94 "2014-03-20T22:38:37Z")
When I was about 18, I saw the Prime Minister of Canada being driven in a black stretch Cadillac. I ran up to the car - right up to the passenger window (in the rear) and made a jerking motion with my thumb and shouted out at him, “You are out of here!”. I did that because an election was coming up and I meant to express the opinion that people would never vote for him again. I was wrong however (it was Pierre E. Trudeau). A few years later, I thought about this incident and I concluded that I was very lucky to still be alive. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if anyone who did this didn’t get shot on the spot by his security team. I have no idea why they didn’t get out of the car and beat the shit out of me - or at least arrrest me. The only thing I can think of is that the PM recognized I was just some dumb kid and he took pity on me and told his security people to forget about it. But I surely did deserve to take a beating for doing that and today, I surely do regret having done that. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/95 "2014-03-20T22:39:13Z")
I took a leak with Bill Clinton a few years ago, maybe 2009. I was staying in the same hotel as Bill and Hillary on a family vacation. They are both lovely, approachable, and very funny in person. Our closest encounter was in a small men’s restroom by the pool. Bill had just come back from playing golf (a hole away from my dad, incidentally) and had his leg up right on the bathroom sink. There wasn’t a lot of room for maneuver since he is a very tall fellow, so I waited quietly until he was done to use the urinal. He turned to me and said, “sorry, I’m just trying to get this goo off my legs.” I almost died right there. I felt he would have appreciated a humorous comment, but in one of my few moments of self-restraint I told him to take his time. We had a nice breakfast with them at the next table. My mother got pretty friendly with Hillary and told her that she cried when Hillary dropped out of the race. Without missing a beat Hillary said, “yeah, me too.” ETA: Bill also rather unsubtly checked out my wife. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/96 "2014-03-20T22:48:29Z")
A good story. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/97 "2014-03-20T23:05:01Z")
I shook hands with Gerald Ford when he was president. My roommate at the time worked for a television station and for some reason the President toured the station. Not nearly as close, but I was at a speech given by JFK on June 7 1963 at NAS Point Mugu. The recording is [here](http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHA-190-001.aspx). I remember the last sentence of his remarks, where he commented on the “California sunshine”. It was, as is typical that time of year, completely overcast. I like to imagine I can hear my 9-year old voice cheering and my little hands clapping in that recording. I was tremendously impressed with the President, even from 50 feet away. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/98 "2014-03-20T23:15:45Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > About ten feet from Clinton; he was shaking hands down the line and turned back about three people from me. DiFi was following up for him, but I remember the guys on the roofs (it was an Air Force Base, out on the flight line) with scopes the size of top hats better than I remember her. > > And I was in the audience of Willie Brown’s short-lived talk show and chatted with him after taping, but he was only shadow ruler of California. A couple of times I’ve been within 20 to 40 feet of President Clinton for speeches. I’ve been 15 feet away from President Carter. Both while they were POTUS. I’ve been at the same table as Sen. Feinstein at a lunch and met her on a couple of occasions. I’ve also met the Brown’s, Willie and Jerry a few times each. Willie is actually very gregarious and easy to meet. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/99 "2014-03-20T23:36:25Z")
Willie Brown becoming mayor was the best thing to happen to San Francisco in a long time. Slick Willie! ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/100 "2014-03-21T00:08:27Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > A good story. Thanks, but yours is better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110.md?page=6)