Happy Birthday Mr. President

Today is the 88th birthday of our nation’s 41st President, George Herbert Walker Bush. I’d like to take this opportunity to say “Happy Birthday Mr. President.”

Talk about an American hero.

I’ve always felt a special connection to President Bush (#41) since the day, in 1989, that I met him in the White House. Before you get the idea that I was some special somebody; a big donor with a fancy connection, just toss that one out. It was simply a case of me being in the right place at the right time (kind of like when Holly & Paul met Bono last year on the streets of Nashville just before the U2 concert).

Lisa and I (and also my sister, Lisa) were taking the general White House tour. It was not even the ‘special’ one you could get back then through your Senator or Congressman. As an aside, I think you have arrange all White House tours that way  now.

Anyway, we had gone through the 10 or so public rooms and were getting ready to leave when one of the door guards said to a group of us “He’s coming down the stairs.”

Of course, in this case, there is no doubt who he meant as “HE.”

Just a moment later, down the stairs came a group of dignitaries – as I recall, the President was entertaining a Catholic Cardinal that day along with some other church officials. He looked over at the group of us gawking by the velvet rope and, then, he broke from the group and rushed over to greet us.

Secret servicemen began scrambling, as you might imagine.

I have always thought, to myself, “He didn’t have to do that.” It was very nice of him to take time out of a very busy schedule to interact with a group of tourists. But that is just what he did.

As he talked to us, he admired the place: “What a wonderful house this is!”

Then, he began shaking hands and asking us all where we were from. I’ll never forget when he shook hands with the guy next to me who identified his hometown as Cincinnati. The President replied (with a nod of the head, and you can imagine this next line delivered in the all-too-familiar Bush cadence.

“Ah, Cincinnati. They’ve got good chili down there!”

Some things always stick with you.

One thing that has always stuck with me is how friendly he was to all of us. But, in just a fleeting instant, the moment passed. “Gotta get back to work,” he told us, as he went on his way.

From that moment on, I felt a special connection to him. During the 1992 election, when everyone talked about passing a torch from generation to generation, I balked. The World War II generation (“The Greatest Generation”) did so much to help our country through so many difficult times.

I was not ready for the torch to be passed.

But, history marches on. The torch was passed and that nice man who I had shook hands with in the White House three years earlier was pushed out of office. But he handled that crushing defeat with tremendous grace and dignity. I marveled, later, at how he and his former opponent (#42, ol’ Bill Clinton) became friends and teamed up to lead the relief efforts in the wake of the earthquakes in Haiti and the tsunami in South East Asia.

President Bush was a leader before he was President then he became President. And he has served as a leader as a former President. As I said earlier, he’s an American hero.

There was a nice tribute to President Bush, from his granddaughter, on the Today Show this morning. You can view the clip by clicking the link below. Also, HBO has produced a documentary about President Bush that will begin airing this Thursday.

I can’t wait to check it out.

JG 

Editor’s Note - I never made the connection that the famous Ronald Reagan “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!” speech fell on then-Vice President Bush’s birthday.

(Source: Yahoo!)

Originally posted 6/12/2012