# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/101 "2014-03-21T00:51:05Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > I threw a tomato at the (then) PM of Australia, Malcolm Fraser, during a demonstration at a Melbourne university in (I think) 1978. My aim wasn’t too crash-hot, so I missed by miles…but that was the closest I’ve ever been. > > 😉 I shook hands with Gough Whitlam at the US Embassy in Canberra when I was a kid. I have also shaken hands with Jimmy Carter at about the same time. I was in the rental car shuttle bus in Las Vegas when we were stopped due to GWB’s motorcade went by about 30 feet away. That was in 2003. ---
**Author:** ![Echo\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Echo\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Echo_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/102 "2014-03-21T13:17:48Z")
I was once in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot racecourse when the Queen wandered through. I won some money in an informal bet on what colour frock she would be wearing (some variety of fuchsia, IIRC). ---
**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 27, 2014, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/103 "2014-03-27T06:31:46Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > 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. Of course, that’s standard operating procedures - for police states. :rolleyes: Police in Canada do not have the authority to shoot on sight someone engaged in political protest, not posing any serious threat to life or security. > [@](#): > > 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. Because police who engage in random beatings are committing criminal offences. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/104 "2014-03-27T07:08:38Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > 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. You weren’t wielding a killer stapler. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/105 "2014-03-27T09:59:02Z")
I met the Queen when I was a baby. I’ve taught the President of Azerbaijan (English as a foreign language, just one lesson when he decided to join in with his diplomats for some reason). ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/106 "2014-03-27T10:59:48Z")
When I was a teenager I was nearly knocked over by Australian Prime Minister [Robert Menzies’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Menzies) Rolls Royce while crossing Bunda Street near the top of Garema Place. I don’t know for sure whether Bob or Dame Pattie was aboard, because I didn’t care, but I have always claimed that, in more ways than just by invoking conscription, Menzies tried to kill me. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/107 "2014-03-27T11:05:55Z")
I should mention my all time favorite meeting a head of state story. My brother came home from work one day and as he pulled in the driveway he spotted this foppish character holding a German shorthaired pointer on its leash while waving a riding crop at the neighbour’s German shepherd to keep it away. He remarked to Cathy, “That guy across the road with the dog is the spitting image of Paul Keating.” Cathy had a look and said, “It is Paul Keating. He lives up the road and walks the dog past here all the time.” On hearing that it was the ex-Prime Minister Mick ran out the front of his house and yelled out, “You better put that riding crop away you dickhead or I’ll come over there and shove it up your arse.” Keating and dog scuttled away into the distance. I have always liked the fact that I live in a country where the average guy can give a former PM a gobful and live to laugh about it. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/108 "2014-03-27T14:51:05Z")
Don’t know if this counts, but I worked at the funeral home that handled the remains of [Duong Van Minh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_minh) ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/109 "2014-03-27T20:33:08Z")
When I was a small boy in the early '70s, my dad took me to the Portland (Oregon) Airport to watch then-President Nixon get off a plane, but we were at least a couple hundred yards away. In 1976, my Cub Scout pack went to see President Ford, again in Portland, give a speech on his campaign tour. Ford entered the auditorium via the entrance closest to where we were sitting, so passed within maybe 50 feet of us. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/110 "2014-03-27T20:59:24Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I once exchanged pleasantries with Pierre Elliot Trudeau. In the middle of St. Catherine st, downtown Montreal, on a Satuday night. He was simply walking down the sidewalk, I looked up and there he was. I smiled, he smiled, we shook hands, and kept going. The man had presence. > > Also, had dinner sitting at table next to Newt Gingrich. After he was house speaker. He’s taller than I expected. Trudeau was not head of state. The queen is. For years I lived a few blocks from the future president of Latvia. (Who knew? Certainly she didn’t.) I probably passed right by her at the supermarket or something. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/111 "2014-03-27T21:00:29Z")
I’ve never been particularly close to any headm of state WHILE that person held office. I was very close to George W. Bush several times while he was here in Austin as Governor of Texas, but was never within 10 miles of him while he was President. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/112 "2014-03-28T02:11:23Z")
Somewhere around 1980 or so, I interviewed later VP of the United States, Dan Quayle. Back in the day, Dan was running for US Congressman from the state 'o Indiana, and the teeny-tiny, backwater radio station I worked for in Noblesville, Indiana, was on his itinerary. Surprisingly down-to-earth, Quayle was a complete natural for interviews. We both got a lot of amusement from the cows in the neighboring field serenading us during our taping. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/113 "2014-03-28T03:34:50Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > We both got a lot of amusement from the cows in the neighboring field serenading us during our taping. You mean like radio station WOOF, out of Hoople, N.D.? [**PDQ Bach on the Air**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7YtSt9gYsA) (5:00 mark). ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/114 "2014-03-28T06:51:34Z")
About a mile, as the crow flies. Obama has been to Boston a few times since I’ve lived here. I’d never have known if not for the fact that the MBTA temporarily stops trains to wherever he is when he’s being shuttled in and out – it counts as an interruption in service, so they send a notice out to all T-Alerts subscribers explaining why nothing will be moving for twenty minutes or so. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/115 "2014-03-29T07:12:12Z")
I nearly ran into George Washington at St. Paul’s chapel on Broadway, but he had died 213 years before. ---
**Author:** ![drewc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@drewc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewc)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/116 "2014-03-29T13:38:55Z")
I had a beer and a nice chat with NZ Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer at a workingman’s club in Christchurch NZ in summer 1989. He went to Univ of Chicago, and I’m from Chicago, so we talked about that among others. He had only been PM for a few months at that time. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey\_Palmer\_(politician)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Palmer_(politician)) ---
**Author:** ![drewc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@drewc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewc)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/117 "2014-03-29T14:10:00Z")
I also was approx 50 feet away from Reagan in '84 at a campaign speech at College of DuPage, in Glen Ellyn IL. Hated him, as did my family, but my dad being thick with local DuPage County pols had great seats available and said that it was something my sister and I needed to do. I was 12, she 10. [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/101684c.htm](http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/101684c.htm) To balance it out my mom took us to a Geraldine Ferraro appearance a few weeks later. My parents were county chairs of John Anderson’s Repub primary campaign and subsequent run as an independent for Pres in 1980, so there were several occasions where my family ate dinner with him at our dining room table in suburban Chicago. My dad served with Obama for years on the Community Renewal Society’s board in Chicago in the late 90s/early 2000s, and was more than passing acquaintances with him. There was a time when each was in the other’s address books on their cellphones, up to and past the '04 keynote speech. It would take some work but if my dad really needed to speak to him about something urgent today, they’d probably be talking by tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Uther\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Uther\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uther_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/118 "2014-03-29T18:48:48Z")
Two heads of state: I met Johannes Rau (later the federal President of Germany) about 30 years ago, when he was prime minister of Northrhine-Westphalia and visited our city and my school. I was interested in politics enough to go and shake his hand. About 20 years ago, my wife (then on crutches) and I started to cross an smallish alley in The Hague and a lady on a bike nearly crashed into us because she had been distracted. My wife almost fell down, the lady dismounted, helped he stabilize herself and apologized. She was Beatrix, the Queen of the Netherlands. Meanwhile some other guy dismounted from his bike, looked more like an aide than a bodyguard. We made a bit of awkward conversation with her majesty - mostly because we wanted to show off the bits of Dutch we spoke, but did not know enough beyound the common phrases - and then they cycled onward. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/119 "2014-03-29T19:03:38Z")
Shaken hands with Barack Obama, when he was president, 3x. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110/120 "2014-03-29T19:08:48Z")
I’ve shaken hands with Al Gore and have a picture of myself with him. This was after he was out of office so I’m not sure if that counts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closest-physically-youve-been-to-a-head-of-state/684110.md?page=7)