Sunday, February 17th, 2008...9:15 pm
Audience Participation Portion of the Show
I’m just a little curious about the answer to this from all y’all. How many of you have actually met any of the candidates who are running (or were running) for president this year?
I’ve met four of them:
John Edwards: He’s made numerous visits to Tucson. I only actually met him during one of them though. Back in 2002, he made a visit to Tucson and spoke in what was then called “The Room” (now called “The Copper Hall”) at Hotel Congress. I shook his hand and told him that John Dillinger stayed at that hotel once. He laughed and said he was in good company.
Barack Obama: I was coming back from the 2005 MLS Cup, and I had a layover in Denver. My mom had given me grief because I missed Obama’s appearance in Phoenix. I look up from the book I was reading…and there’s Obama walking to his gate. I go up to him, and I say, “hello, people gave me grief because I missed you in Phoenix, and now…” I managed to talk to him for a couple of minutes. The guy standing next to him struggled to get into the conversation, “Hello, I’m Harold Ford Jr.”
Ron Paul: Came to the U of A back in 1988. Came out to see him because he was the closest thing to a presidential candidate we’d see in person that year (he was the nominee of the Libertarian Party back then). I got his signature on a piece of literature.
Bill Richardson: Met him several times. The most remarkable of which was a reception at the Governor’s mansion in Santa Fe. Richardson’s plane was late coming in from New York. He finally showed up…well…let’s just say he took full advantage of the hospitality offered in first class. He greeted a group of us by offering to head butt us. We, of course, accepted.
Your submissions are welcome.
9 Comments
February 17th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Well Ted, you beat me by two. I shook Bill Richardson’s hand in 2003 at a YDA conference in Albuquerque. You were there right? Then either later that year or early 2004 I met John Edwards at Pam Sutherland’s house. I even got a picture taken with him by one of his staffers who said she would send it to me. Yup, still waiting for that picture.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:14 am
I have met Hillary about a dozen times. She is nothing like the media spin, she is a very warm person.
I have met John Edwards a few times, he is a nice, down to earth person.
I met Obama briefly once when he was helping Pederson.
I have met Bill Richardson a few times.
I have also met Biden and Kucinich. I hadn’t thought about it but I have met almost all of them at some point. I have also met McCain to discuss Medicare and Social Security.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:32 am
I met John McCain back in 1999 or 2000 in Kayenta, AZ where I was working as a teacher at the time. He was doing his little town hall stuff, but that was the first time I ever recall him coming to Kayenta in the 10 years I had lived there. (he was already a candidate for President)
When it was over, I said to him, “Thanks for coming, Senator. Next time, come when you AREN’T running for President.”
Did that ever set him off. He glared at me, his face turned a bit red and said, “Listen buddy, I’ve been coming here for x number of years.”
That told me all I needed to know about McCain. He doesn’t tolerate anyone questioning his motives or actions and he has a short temper. These are not characteristics of a President.
As a side note, I don’t recall him coming back to Kayenta since (though I moved back to Tucson in October 2005).
February 18th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I got to talk to Edwards twice, once in 2005 and once in 2006. I have met Bill, but no Hill. Does Gore count? Ok, now I am just name dropping.
I have met all of the Republican candidates, except Paul.
February 18th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I met John Edwards at the same event Ted did — the Hotel Congress back in 2002. At that time, Edwards had just appeared on the cover of People magazine as the sexiest politician in America and it seemed pretty clear to me that he was going to run for President. I asked him upon meeting him why I should support him in that quest; he said he hoped his remarks would provide an answer, and then he proceeded to talk about the need to preserve civil liberties, support equal rights for all, and pay for it with a reasonable economic plan. I was in love! We hosted him at our house in 2003 (along with Stanley Feldman and Clague Van Slyke and others), at which time my husband gave him a copy of Greg Palast’s book. Edwards spoke at the annual EMILY’s List conference that year in DC, and when I introduced my mother to him, he said to her, “Ah jest adohah yo-ah daughtah!” Sigh. While Edwards did not seem to follow Palast’s advice in 2004, he really seemed to in 2008!
However, the opportunity to support our first woman President was more than I could resist. I had met Hillary Clinton years before at EMILY’s List conferences (sat with her at a dinner once), and then had met with her as we were setting up Arizona List in early 2004 when she spoke at Jim Pederson’s house (the picture of that meeting is on our AZ List web site). Hillary is terrific, as Dana said. Everyone knows how smart she is, but in person, in addition to being brilliant, she is so tiny and so charming! She was quite supportive of our efforts with AZ List, and it has been my pleasure to support her.
I also had a couple of meetings with Barack Obama. One, at a breakfast meeting in Phoenix, and another was a private lunch in Tempe (in January, 2006). There were 10 of us at the lunch in Tempe, and Obama asked us what issues were important in AZ. I immediately said that blocking the Alito nomination was critical because it was the final vote the right needed to stop women from having the right to choose what happens in the event of an unwanted pregnancy. Obama said that all the Senate could do was fillibuster. I said that was what the American public really needed — we Democrats needed to be seen as standing strong for our beliefs. I pointed out Governor Napolitano’s strong stand on education funding, and how her poll numbers kept rising with every veto. Obama said that by his calculation, a fillibuster would simply cause Democrats runinng for vulnerable Senate seats in 2006 to lose their elections. I said that if Democrats caved on this, what do we actually stand for? Obama leaned back in his chair and said, “I thought this was a friendly lunch.” (I haven’t been invited to any other Obama events since.)
Incidentially, the fact that the Senate did not fillibuster Alito has stuck in my craw for quite awhile. I’ve been a big supporter of Senator Maria Cantwell and told her when I saw her at a dinner in DC that I was no longer going to send her money because she had voted for cloture on Alito. She told me that there had been a strategy worked out among the Democrats that they would refer Alito from the Judiciary Committee to the Senate floor, and then have a full debate on Alito’s positions on abortion and civil rights on the floor, so to maximize the public exposure of his very bad record on those issues. At the 11th hour, Cantwell told me, John Kerry decided to call for a fillibuster and derailed the whole plan. Hence the weird votes on cloture.
And we wonder why people get tired of politicians . . . .
February 18th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I have met Hillary a few times. All at party fundraisers or Clinton/Gore events back in the day. I got to staff her the day she visited Barry Goldwater in the hospital shortly before his death.
I have met Senator Edwards many times but my favorite was July 2006 when I staffed him for a Yes on 202 (minimum wage increase) and he hugged me goodbye.
I met Richardson a while back at some party function. Same with Dodd (remember he was running once upon a time?).
I have never met Senator Obama and now that McCain is the nominee I doubt he will be back anytime soon - maybe at the inaugural? (wink!)
I have met Senator McCain twice. Once at a parade when I was about 10. I thought Cindy was his daughter (my mom still laughs about that). And then in 2004 when I managed the No on 106 (it was an anti-Clean Elections initiative) I actually met with McCain in D.C. at the Mayflower Hotel. He has been a supporter of public financing (see how close he will get to that issue now). It was surreal to be sitting across a table from him.
Of course, my favorite meeting with a Presidential candidate was in 2004 when I worked the Democratic Primary Debate at the Orpheum in Phoenix. Al Sharpton was second nicest, and most sincere politician I have encountered.
The first? Who else? Bill.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Met Hillary for the first time at a fundraiser in Houston in 2000. She was a former classmate of the Congressional candidate I was working for at the time and graciously offered us some time with the host and some local donors. Regina Montoya Coggins, my boss, called me a “goof” for not wanting to get a picture taken with a “future President”. I caved, I posed, and it’s one of my most cherished mementos of my time in politics. I got to meet with Senator Clinton several times when I lived and campaigned in rural New York. She is a warm, capable and funny person who I believe will make a great President.
I “met” Bush in 1999 or so at a YR event at SMU. A singularly unpleasant experience. Ask me about it sometime.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:23 am
What great stories!
I met Senator Obama at an Emilys List event in DC a couple years back.
I met Senator Clinton and President Clinton (and their wonderful daughter) on their trips to the Valley in January and February. (What a dream come true!)
I met Vice President Gore (Gotta mention Gore) while at a Democratic Fundraiser in 2000ish. I shook Governor Richardsons had at a YDA event some years back.
I met Senator Edwards in 2000 at an Ohio Democratic event - The story is quite funny… I accidently walked into his “green room” before the event when I was lost trying to find additional folding chairs for an elderly couple. He was extremely nice.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Sorry to have not commented on this before, but I finally read this post, and also a story relevant to Pam’s anecdote about Sen. Obama. I think Pam mischaracterizes the Senator’s stance on Samuel Alito.
Please see the MSNBC snippet below…
“In the battle over Alito, some Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry, D- Mass., half-heartedly tried to stall a vote on the nomination.
It was clear that Alito’s supporters would win the procedural vote — called a “motion to invoke cloture” in Senate language — and thus would prevent the delay on Alito’s confirmation.
Obama voted “no” anyway, joining 24 other Democrats. No Republicans voted with them. Most of the Democrats from battleground states voted for the motion.
‘He not only voted against Alito, but for a filibuster,’ said Nan Aron, of the Alliance for Justice, an advocacy group that led the effort to defeat several Bush judicial nominees.”
To the point of the post, I worked Obama for Illinois in 2004, but have not had personal converations with any of the other candidates.
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