Barack Obama will speak to a crowd of 6,000 excited supporters at 11 A.M. today at the State University of New York at Buffalo (about 10 minutes from my house). The lines of people trying to get tickets to the event were a mile long. The President is supposed to speak about funding for college students and the economy. With the Debt Limit debate looming next month and the threat of a government shut-down to defund Obamacare, the Fall looks like a bleak and contentious time. Today’s crowd of enthusiastic supporters should give Obama a lift. Whether the President will visit the George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection during his campus tour is unknown.
George, a lot of non-Americans including Indians perceive US presidents as demigods. Is that how Americans also think of their president? We usually don’t get excited when our prime minister (head of executive) or president (ceremonial head of state) come a-visiting because that would mean cordoning of roads, traffic jams, and inconveniencing the masses.
Prashant, U. S. Presidents are like rock stars. A visit from Obama produced lines of thousands of people eager to get tickets to his address. Plenty of people will line his route taking pictures of his super-duper bus! Yes, there will be closing of roads and traffic jams, and inconvenience. But there will be a lot of excitement, too!
George, how quickly might the problems of this nation–nay, the World–be solved if our leaders would just sit down together over a stack of old paperbacks!
Exactly, Dan! But right now we have gridlock and no problem solving is being accomplished.
I’m sure a visit to the collection is on his to-do list!
Deb, I suspect the President’s tight schedule (he and his entourage need to bus to Syracuse for another speech tonight) might preclude a visit to the Kelley Collection.
He’d be foolish to miss it.
Patti, the last time Obama was in Buffalo, he and his crew sought out the best chicken wing restaurant in the area.
SUNY Buffalo could get a lot of mileage, not to mention press, if they could get Obama th pose with the Kelley Collection, preferably holding an Orrie Hitt paperback.
Jeff, I agree. But somehow I think Barack Obama and Orrie Hitt will never meet.
The only Presidents I’ve seen in person were Carter and Clinton.
My Mom and Dad took us to see John F. Kennedy who was running for President at the time. His plane landed at the Niagara Falls Airport and Kennedy walked past us just a few feet away.
Of course if Hillary is elected in 2016 Jackie will be able to say she spoke to her personally, as Hillary came to her school when she was running for Senate in 2000.
Jeff, Hilary is going to visting SUNY at Buffalo this Fall as part of their Speaker Series. No, I’m not going to that, either.
George, I’ve read the rumors that the Senate Democrats are trying to procure the Kelley Collection and move it to Georgetown, with borrowing rights to the White House, but the House Republicans are fighting the move as some contents are too racy.
By the way, I notice you seem to get the most comments on posts topics that are either political in nature or concerning health. The Bullhorn gets the most comments on old paperbacks. Interesting.
Sadly, the GOP would love to have a photo of Obama holding an Orrie Hitt novel. As one who has actually performed a single-person protest of the current VP at a speaking engagement on my then-campus (he was a Senator then, and the proximate cause was his voluble endorsement of the anti-flag-burning amendment to the US constitution, but more importantly some of his other shadier actions), I think I could give the current 1970s Republican in Chief a miss, too (or the potential next one).
Prashant, we in the States are as well often quite annoyed at the life-disruption the security around our office-holders frequently entails…our folks are just as non-demigods as yours, just with more resources for mischief and worse available to them. Which doesn’t stop certain citizens of the Bastion of Democracy from truckling as if the government wasn’t theoretically of, by and for the People.
These poltroons and scaliwags aren’t demigods to me. “Obmama” is just another mouthpiece for special interests and back room deal makers. And if Hitlery’s in the neighboorhood, George, do America a favor and lob a few grenades at her.
Rick, I usually get a lot of comments on Thursdays for some unknown reason. I think THE BROKEN BULLHORN and georgekelley.org have slightly different audiences.
Todd, you’re right. But the coolness of Air Force One landing here coupled with the new super bus, Ground Force One, has plenty of citizens agog. Bread and circuses…
Bob, as you can imagine, Security was extensive around the President here today. When Hilary speaks at SUNY at Buffalo this Fall, Security will be equally pervasive.
When I worked at McChord AFB we had a few presidential visits. I saw Dan Quayle once, too. I didn’t mind because we were told to stay inside and it gave some of us an excuse to slack off.
George and Todd, thanks for your views on the US president and his visits. “Rock star” sounds way better. Recently, I read a book on the US Secret Service and found that presidents and their first families lead fairly ordinary lives when away from the glare of the public and the media. They had their eccentricities and idiosyncrasies too. I also found that of all the presidents and their families in the past four decades, the USSS ranked the Bushes, both father and son, the highest, for their understanding of, and down-to-earth attitude towards, the agents. Laura Bush gets a special mention.
I shook hands with Hillary and Chelsea Clinton in 2000, but the most exciting political figure that I have met is Ralph Nader.