Ah. Now I get it. 
Next thing you know, dudes here will be begging me to shake W’s hand. 
That might just be a matter of timing, of course. There’s some age distribution where people are likely to post to this board, and there’s some age distribution where folks are likely to meet a President, and it might be that those two distributions are about 6-14 years apart. Certainly, few folks here are likely to have shook hands with Lincoln, no matter how outgoing he was.
Another contributing factor might be that Clinton was President for eight years, while Bush Sr. only had 4, and W has only had 6 so far, so all else being equal, one would expect Clinton to have met more people in his capacity as president.
As for myself, well, I’ve seen a few on TV. Does that count?
My dad worked for the State Department and met Eisenhower after his 2 terms and Nixon before his.
Myself? Nobody yet (though I have an outside chance next year…)
I was in the same room where Carter gave a speech about 10 years ago.
I saw George Sr. throw out the first pitch opening day of 1989 at the Baltimore O’s game.
The coolest thing I saw was in the fall of 1987, I went to visit my brother who was living in Washington DC. We were doing all the touristy stuff. While at Arlington we went to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
There was barricades set up and Secret Service agents all over the place, but hardly any crowd. I had a front row seat to see a helicopter land and, at the time Vice President Bush escorting the somebody really important from Sweden.
We saw a full 50 state flag honor guard and a 21 * cannon* salute laying of the wreath ceremony. It still gives me chills to think about it.
Well I held up the Queens car once, was walking with parents in the Windsor Great Park and I didn’t notice the Bently driving slowly behind me. Got my own little smile and wave from HM.
My sister, while studying in Cuba was at a state dinner with ex-president Carter and Fidel Castro.
When I was a police officer in Washington DC, I was part of the securtiy contigent for one of the inaugural balls for Nixon’s second inaugural. He and his entourage passed by our security ring as he was entering one of the Smithsonian buildings where the ball was being held. He spotted someone he knew and reached over my shoulder to shake hands with the man. That’s as close as I have come to a president.
Well, if overseas leaders count.
I used to do IT support for the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Well, to be accurate, I did it for the Department of Education Head offices, which included the Minister of Education’s office, and he happened to be the Prime Minister as well. The Parliament building was right across the street, and he used to duck across to the Education building when he wanted to get away from the Parliament for a while, so we saw him often.
Then why bother to tell this non-story? Sheesh.
I met Jimmy Carter before he was president - while he was running for the Democratic nomination in 1976. Just a meet and greet, but it did succeed in convincing me to vote for him.
When I was living in Hamilton (NZ), the Queen landed there to come and visit her racing horse at the Cambridge Stud. My sister and found out when the plane was due to land and parked at the airport entrance (small rural airport). There were no other people there, just me and my sister - then the Queen’s car comes out and we stand there like dweebs and wave, we got a fairly uninterested wave back.
Compare this with going to an airshow in England when I was little and there was a huge crowd there to watch Princess Anne open the show - not even the Queen. I was put on Dad’s shoulders and Mum and Dad were pointing and shouting, “Over there, over there!” - but I never did register which person in the far distance was Princess Anne.
I, too, shook hands with President Ford once upon a time.
Close, but not quite. I’ve met a presidential candidate (Gary Hart), and a sitting Vice President (Al Gore–although he was standing at the time).
I’ve never understood this “wooden” or “robot” label that got attached to Al Gore. He is an absolutely riveting speaker, and even then he had a way of making you feel like you’re the only person in the room that matters.
In the early '90s I was in a reception line for the Reagans at some charity do in NYC. I recall Mr. Reagan giving a very floppy, dead-fish sort of a handshake.
I met former presidential candidate Barry Goldwater while working at Scottsdale Airport in the late 80’s. We were (still) in the same fraternity and I was thrilled to introduce myself to an Arizona icon and big cheese in the franternity. We chatted and I got him on his plane. A few months passed and he was scheduled to depart again. I figured I would have to reintroduce myself again (he was up there in age), but when I walked up to him he said “Well hi there brother”! We talked about some of things we had talked about before (building scale model airplanes), but I was amazed at his memory and acumen in dealing with people. I know he didn’t know my name but he knew I was was somebody he should know. There has to be some common thread among sucessful politicians along this line.
But Aznar never was “president” of Spain. He was the prime minister, what with Spain being a monarchy and all that. After all, Tony Blair is not the president of the UK, isn’t it?
I got to meet and talk with Aznar once in a reception in the Spanish embassy in Tokyo when I was living there (one of the advantages of being a Spaniard living in Tokyo is that, because there are so very few of us living there, the embassy routinely invites all of us to any kind of celebration/party/whatever they organise). The guy is really really short. I am not particularly tall, but he reached only as far as my shoulder. Gave me an “oily” impression… Used-car salesman kind of man. And he had a smooth way of deflecting awkward questions.
I also got to meet and talk with the Spanish crown prince Felipe, under similar circumstances. Quite a nice guy. Charming, too, but I guess he has been trained for that. This one is tall, though. Holy shit, he is TALL… Roughly 2 metres at least. You keep looking up, and up, and up…
JoseB
He? So this was quite a long time ago then? We haven’t had a bloke in charge in ages. 
I have shaken hands with JFK, Clinton and Obama, when each was campaigning for their first term. And I saw Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
I’ve been told that I met Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel, when I was 6. I don’t recall anything about it.
I was very little and there was a family trip to Washington. I think I remember being picked up and told to look through a door peep-hole to see president Nixon sitting at his desk with papers in front of him. I think I was allowed like 15 seconds & then we had to leave.
Never got to meet President Clinton. Always wanted to, but doubt I ever will. I doubt I’ll ever get to meet President Obama either…
Has anyone else met Obama? I know one Doper was tutored by Biden before the latter’s nomination.