Denver, US
MEETING THE PRESIDENT OF THE FREE WORLD
Here's an honest to God account of one person's meeting with the President in Philadelphia this month:
"So when the President was here on July 4, I had the opportunity to shake his hand. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not but I did it anyway, and said to him, "Mr. President, I hope you only serve four years. I'm very disappointed in your work so far." He kept smiling and shaking my hand but answered, "Who cares what you think?"
His face stayed photo-op perfect, but his eyes gave me a look that said, if we'd been drinking in some frathouse in Texas, he'd've happily answered, "Let's take it outside." A nasty little gleam. But he was (fortunately) constrained by presidential propriety. But that was the end of it until I turned away and started scribbling the quote down in my notepad, so as to remember the "Gift" forever.
When he saw me do that, he got excited and craned his neck over the rubberneckers to shout at me, "Who are you with? Who are you with?" People started looking, so he made a joke: "Make sure you get it right." But he kept at it: "Who do you write for?" I told him I wasn't "with" anybody and pointed to one of his staff people who knows me a little, and said, "Ask him, he'll tell you." Then I split.
Half an hour later, my boss (who'd helped organize the event we were at) came up to me and said, "Did you really tell the President he was doing a 'lousy fucking job'?"
"No way," I said, "I was very polite, I just told him what I thought."
Fortunately, he believed me. He wasn't happy with me, but he believed me. But anyway, if you ever wondered if the Prez really is kind of a jerk, I'm here to tell you, he is, and I got The Gift to prove it. I'm thinking of making up t-shirts so we can share The Gift with everyone:
"Who cares what you think?"
- President George W. Bush, July 4, 2001"
I'm not sure who this happened to, but will let you all know when I find out.