Tell Us Which President's Hand You Have Shaken.

[MineralMan]

I'll start:

On a flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles just three years ago, our departure was slightly delayed. About halfway between the two cities, a couple of guys in suits walked from one end of the plane to the other. A few minutes later, I turned around in my seat, only to see Jimmy Carter walking down the aisle. He stopped at every row, greeted everyone, and shook every single hand on that plane, including mine. I just said "How do you do, Mr. President?" My wife told him how nice it was that he had taken the time to greet everyone.

When we landed at LAX, a limo pulled up on the tarmac near the gate, and President Carter and his wife exited via a boarding stairway and got in.

So, what Presidents have you spoken to and shaken hands with?

[rurallib]

1. Obama several times during the primary

that is all.

[lligrd]

2. My Hands Are Clean

Never even seen a President in person let alone shaken one's hand.

[floridablue]

3. Presidents Nixon and Truman

Nixon when he brought the piano from the White House that Truman had there and gave it to the Truman Library.

I also lived for a time on Mr Truman's street and saw him on his morning walk, or waiting in the car with the SS guy at Kroger's on Independence Avenue while Bess did her grocery shopping.

Bobby Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, both who SHOULD have been President.

[MineralMan]

5. While in the USAF,

I was once close enough to President Nixon to have shaken his hand when he visited NSA headquarters during an exercise, however his hand was not offered to this E-4. That's OK, though...I disliked him pretty thoroughly.

I did shake Bobby Kennedy's hand once.

[ananda]

12. I loved Hubert Humphrey.

I attended a rally at the Astrodome in Houston
where Humphrey rode in on a open topped float
and the music Happy Days Are Here Again was
playing.

That was one week before the election and Humphrey
was gaining ground on Nixon. If he'd had just one
extra week, he would have won that election.

I was so sick that he lost. I couldn't stand Nixon.

Here's some grafitti from the third floor ladies'
restroom at Rice Univ library that I discovered while
doing some research in the late seventies.

Don't change Dicks in the middle of a screw,
Re-elect Nixon in 72.

Nixon had to see Deep Throat three times before he
could get it down Pat.

LOL

[mikeargo]

4. Bill Clinton

He came to Manchester early in his first term. I waited for two hours on the rope line for the chance.

[Botany]

6. 4 Obama, Clinton, Gore, & Kerry's

Bitter table for one please.

[TNDemo]

7. Al Gore.

And he was president. Just that little Supreme Court technicality.

[tigervalentine]

8. I've only met republicans

GHW Bush (very aloof, unfriendly) in either Midland or Odessa, back in the '60s

RW Reagan (charming and warm) at his Century City offices, in the late '80s

[eowyn_of_rohan]

9. President Clinton AND Rightful President Gore

My mom shook President Carter's at a Habitat 4 Humanity event

Presidents whose hand I would have loved to shake:
Lincoln
Kennedy
Either Roosevelt (I like them both for different reasons)

[peace frog]

10. Lucky duckies

I had the dubious pleasure of meeting two of the Watergate burglers, one of them several times. Not the same, not by a long shot.

[ananda]

11. LBJ

When I was eleven, during the primary,
my dad took two or three of us kids
to the local Wynwood shopping center
in Oak Cliff (Dallas) where LBJ stood
on a flat topped wagon and made a
little speech and shook hands. I shook
his hand.

That's the only president I ever met in
person.

However, in the eighties, I attended
the Camelot forum at SMU in Dallas, where
I met Roger Hillsman and Sargent Shriver.
After the panel discussion, I went on
stage and shook Sargent Shriver's hand.
I was with a friend of my mother's who
also shook his hand and waxed ecstatically
about how much she admired Eunice Kennedy
Shriver and what she's done with Special
Olympics.

When I was in college in Houston, I also
attended one of Barbara Jordan's rallies
at Miller Outdoor Theater and got to vote
for her. That was very cool.

Now for the difficult one. In 1967, also
at college, I attended a talk by George HW
Bush. He was very handsome and personable,
and he had a pretty good reputation. I
never voted for him, but I wasn't put off
by him either... not until the Reep party
started coming under the influence of the
religious rightwing and the platform
started changing, with Bush having to
do some contortions to accommodate it. That
I found repulsive and disgusting.

Then, later, I learned about Bush's CIA
stuff and nasty political maneuvering against
Carter to get Reagan elected.

Now I despise the Bushes and consider just
about everything they've done and associated
themselves with pure evil.

Sue

[MichellesBFF]

14. President Al Gore

At the Albany International Airport, got a ticket through the local Democratic Office.
He was great!

[louis-t]

13. HHH in '68. Made it to the evening news, too.

Some place in metro Detroit. After speaking, he suddenly turned and waded into the crowd right in front of me. I was 12 and was one of the first to shake his hand. Shook it again as he turned back to leave. That's as close as I've come to shaking a president's hand. When Kennedy came to Mt. Clemens in '60, we saw the motorcade from our car. I remember that vividly.

[graywarrior]

15. Obama

That's it. That's all I need for the rest of my life.

[cali]

16. Jimmy Carter

The first time was when my dad through a fundraiser for him at Waveny in New Canaan, and then at his inauguration.

[rucky]

17. I packed pints of frozen yougurt for W a couple times.

back when he was just a jerk-off team owner and son-of-president.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

18. JFK, Carter, and Clinton

JFK while he was campaigning for the Presidency, at a gathering in Philadelphia. He was movie-star handsome, much better-looking then in his pictures. I was a teenager in love.

Carter, one day when my boss, who had been Truman's Chief Of Staff, decided to take a book over to the White House, a book he thought President Carter should read. (Of course, weeks of planning had gone into this presentation - one does not just send a book to the President and expect it to get to him.) We walked from our offices at 1776 K Street, NW to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, were greeted by the guards and escorted into the Oval Office, where President Carter was waiting for us.

He was smaller than I'd expected, and, again, better-looking. His Southern accent was even stronger when he and my boss, who was a native North Carolinian, chatted.

At one point, Carter, noticing my wide-eyed survey of everything in the room, asked me if I'd like to sit at his desk.

I sort of squeaked "Yes," after looking at my boss, who nodded at me, smiling.

President Carter escorted me to his chair, which was an extremely upright leather judge's chair, and invited me to sit. I was afraid to look at his desk, afraid that sensitive papers might be there, things for which I might be shot if I read them. I just sat there.

He pointed to his phone, and said, "Would you like to call anyone and tell them where you are?"

I just about yelped, "Oh, can I call my Mom?"

He smiled - a really wonderful smile that seemed to go all the way around his head, and pulled the console - there were lots of lines, but it was black, so I knew I wouldn't accidentally start a nuclear war - towards me.

I called my mother. We greeted each other, and then I said, "Guess where I am, Mom?"

And she said, "Where, honey?"

And I said, "In the Oval Office with Charlie (my boss) and President Carter!"

And she said, "What is wrong with you, (my name here)? What are you up to now?"

I said, "No, really, I'm in the Oval Office," and I could hear her sigh on the other end of the line.

Carter was still standing beside me, and I said to him, covering the mouthpiece OF THE PRESIDENT'S PHONE, "She doesn't believe me."

He said, "Let me talk to her. What's her name?"

I told him, and he said to her, "Mrs. *******, your daughter is here with my and with Charles Murphy. They're my guests here today, as they were kind enough to bring me a book they thought might make me a little smarter."

Him, she believed.

Later, she told me she almost hung up when "Jimmy Carter" got on the phone with her, thinking it was a prank.

Mothers.

And Clinton I met in two White House social events. Both times, I nearly fainted when he was near. The man glows. He throbs. I have never encountered such a stunning creature in my life - not that he's so handsome, but the man oozes sex appeal. Charisma. Whatever you want to call it. I felt like I'd gone blind and insane when he took my hand.

I have no idea how Hillary puts up with him.

[katmondoo]

19. John F. Kennedy

In April 1960 as he was coming out of a hotel with a pregnant Jackie. He was Gorgeous and so was she.

[emilyg]

20. Clinton and Carter.

[Bertha Venation]

21. My dad - Brother Jimmy (me - none) n/t

[tabbycat31]

22. just the incoming vice president's

I didn't get close enough at the Obama rally to get to shake his hand.

My mom got to speak to Bill Clinton in the Chappaqua Starbucks, but I don't think she shook his hand.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

23. Clinton, PE Obama. nt

[Greyhound]

24. Clinton and Gore. Both at a function in Atlanta back when I mattered.

Everything you ever heard about Clinton is true. I've never met anyone even close to him in charisma.

[Hangingon]

25. Johnson, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George HW, Clinton and W.

[WolverineDG]

26. Clinton & Gore nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. Reagan. Every three hours. Usually once each night. I guess I should see a urologist. n/t

[TahitiNut]

28. Gerald Ford, in 1978 on a rope line in Rochester, NY.

... and, of course, I was a side-boy for JFK in August 1962, at the Navy Yard in D.C. :patriot:

[trof]

29. Carter, when he was running for the first time.

As did my 3 year old daughter.