… I will know him up close and (somewhat) personal, since he taught me History at West Georgia College (now the University of West Georgia) and I’ve had him in my broadcast studio when I interviewed him during his run for Congress.
Have any of you known a president?
Thanks
Q
You must be so…horrified
I was good friends with the grandson of former Peruvian president Belaunde Terry and saw him around the house a few times. I was very young though and don’t remember much.
How was he as a professor?
Very likeable. He made the course fun, and I never knew he had political aspirations until he ran for the Georgia House, joe.
But he screwed up big time when he got a little “taste” of power. He divorced his first wife after she was diagnosed with cancer (there may have been other reasons, but that’s the one that got the locals upset).
He was fronted some money to write a book, and he really dragged his heels on that one. Window of Opportunity was finally released and all was fine for a while.
Well, we all know the rest, right?
I have to be honest with you, though, joe: I got stars in my eyes, and when I no longer worked as news director for the radio station, I joined his “team”, and I stayed with it until he started fuckin’ up.
Now I don’t know, my friend.
“Strange bedfellows, pretty mama. Strange bedfellows, indeed”
(That’s not directed at you, joebuck20, okay? Just fracturing a John Lennon quote. :)) (Or was it Jerry Garcia? I can never tell those 2 apart!)
Thanks!
Quasi
I met Helen Clark when she was Prime Minister of New Zealand once. Does that count for anything?
Paul Keating said hello to me before he was Prime Minister of Australia.
Well, if we’re counting Presidential hopefuls my dad worked on some stuff with Howard Dean (they were both Docs in the same town) and so I had a few conversations with him over the years. Seemed like a nice guy, or at least nice enough to chat with a to young to vote teenager while we were standing around.
(I was hoping Dean would win and my dad could talk his way into a ambassadorship to Fiji or something, but alas)
I knew the president of the local auto dealers’ association.
So, you could get close to him with a weapon?
When my grandpa was travelling on his scrap metal work, he used to stop at a greek diner that was owned by Ralph Nader’s folks.
They brought their kid to work, and so my Grandpa knew him reasonable well. Grandpa called him the most poisonous kid he ever met.
Don’t think so, these days. Last time I was in touch with him was when I found out I was sick, and contacted him as an Alzheimer’s Advocate (me, not him), but he never answered. He paid some “lip service” to us, but nothing really useful.
Q
I have been part of a large pool interviewing Clinton. I was WAY to junior to do more than take notes.
I’ve met Gingrich in the 90s as part of a group of three he pontificated at. Smart guy. But I found him rambling and unfocused.
If that’s what we want, we shoulda picked Jerry Brown when we had the chance.