A visit with POTUS

So Mel, friend extraordinaire (see 'Ode to Mel') works for the President in a round about way – she's an assistant to the director of an executive branch agency. Every year, the President and Vice President hold a pep rally of sorts for the 'section C appointees' (I think that's what Mel told me they were). She asked me if I wanted to come. I said yes right away, but had to think twice when she told me it was Tuesday mid-afternoon and that I'd probably be away from work for three hours.

I was hesitant to ask our boss just because it would take so much time, but I really wanted to go so I sucked it up, asked, and got the okay. I plopped into a cab and rode over to the Daughters of the American Revolution Building. Never been there before, so I can now cross that off of places to see.

Taking the cab was smart because I would never have made it via metro/hoofing it before security shut down, plus it gave me some time to navigate the chaos and track down Mel to get my ticket. We got settled into our pretty awesome seats amongst hundreds of executive branch employees. A slide show from the President's Africa trip played across one of the screens. Apparently I was pretty tired because I definitely started drifting off to sleep. That's one thing about me, I never have problems sleeping – anywhere, anytime, any situation. Airplane, class, church, conference, President's pre-speech slide show, you name it and I've slept through it.

First up was the Vice President. He was pretty much just Dick Cheney being Dick Cheney with that little smirk that always seems to form on the corner of his mouth. This event was three weeks ago so I don’t remember what he said. I just remember that Dick Cheney is pretty cool for such an old dude. He can totally hang. However, it must have been awkward for the lady sitting next to him. What do you do when you sit next to the VP of the US? Is your arm accidentally allowed to brush against his or is that a breech of security? Can you make jokes w/ the veep while the president is speaking? It just seemed really awkward for the lady.

Next up was the President. Obviously, with a crowd full of Republicans, he was received rather well. A standing ovation, actually. With a friendly crowd, Bush is truly quite funny. He let his guard down and just kind of rolled with the punches. I laughed a lot. Everyone laughed a lot. It was a fun afternoon.

I can understand and appreciate that a lot of people don’t like his policies, but what I don’t understand is how people can hate him so much as a person. Brush politics aside, and you’ve got yourself a guy who’d probably be pretty cool to shoot the breeze with. Carter, I think, didn’t do a whole lot of good for the country and I’m not fond of his policies, but I don’t hate the guy. Anyways, that’s all I’ve got to say about that.