A waiter who served President Clinton during his latest visit said it was the thrill of a lifetime. A young Air Force guard at Bellows was excited that the commander in chief spoke to her. The thrill of meeting
the presidentSchoolchildren who met Clinton became heroes to their classmates. A septuagenarian Republican who would jump into an erupting volcano before voting for Clinton told of the kick of waving to the president as his motorcade drove by.
The campaign talk about how Clinton's character flaws had diminished respect for the presidency was so much political hyperbole. The job has a mystique that will endure just about anybody who sits in the Oval Office.
I've met hundreds of the most famous and powerful people in the world in my 28 years as a journalist. I'm not easily impressed and am certainly no celebrity groupie. But I get a charge when I realize that I've met - or at least personally glimpsed - every president since I've been old enough to vote.
I couldn't stand Richard Nixon, but I trudged over to Kawaiahao Church to see him during one of his visits to Hawaii. I was surprised by how much makeup he wore. It seemed incongruous for a guy to bask in Hawaii's sun with a half-inch of foundation on his face.
I met Gerald Ford at one of his stops on the speaking circuit long after voters retired him from the White House. I don't remember what he said or what convention it was, but I remember making a point to shake his hand.
When I moved to Washington, D.C., in 1978 to cover Hawaii's congressional delegation for the Star-Bulletin, I checked into my hotel, looked out the window and saw Jimmy Carter walking out of church across the street.
I thought it a good omen and it was. I enjoyed eight great years in Washington - twice as many as Carter lasted.
At the 1980 Republican convention in Detroit, most of the press corps watched Ronald Reagan's acceptance speech on TV. I went to the floor to see him speak in person.
Reagan also wore a lot of makeup. It made him look ruddy and healthy on TV, but cadaverous in person. The man could project a presence, though.
I also wangled an up-close encounter with George Bush at that convention. He had run against Reagan in the primaries and was holding meetings with each state to release his delegates. His Hawaii supporters invited me to tag along to their meeting.
Everybody knew Bush badly wanted the vice presidential nomination, but when the delegates asked about it he disingenuously denied interest. He quickly departed and left his wife Barbara and some aides behind to make his vice presidential pitch.
I interviewed Clinton at a meeting of Southern governors in Little Rock after he was elected governor of Arkansas at age 30. I don't remember much except that his hair was longer and curlier.
I have a fair chance of carrying my streak into at least one more administration, since I dealt with Al Gore, Jack Kemp and several lesser contenders when I covered Congress.
Whatever their flaws, our presidents had to be remarkable people just to reach the White House. And give them some credit. In my voting life, they've collectively ended the Cold War without a missile being fired, advanced the cause of peace around the world, kept the economy running reasonably well most of the time and made real progress on equal rights and environmental protection.
A record worthy of respect, I'd say.
