It's Good to be President...

or at least have a motor cascade!

I have to put my car in the shop this week.  That got me thinking about something I saw a couple of weeks ago while at our New York office. My business partner and I had left our offices headed to meet a client in Soho when all of a sudden we turned onto Broadway near 28^th street and noticed the streets were being blocked. The sidewalks were beginning to fill with people.  We stopped and asked an elderly man who happened to be Ethiopian if he knew what was going on.  He told us Obama was in town.

I did not know Barry was in NYC.  He didn’t inform me of his trip.  And, I do get weekly emails from him - if not daily.  However, generally those are just asking for money! 

 

The man told us O should be passing by for an event at the Hotel across the street in about 20 minutes. It was 2:00 & 95 degrees.

 

I’ve never seen Obama in person and being a supporter and a political animal, normally I would have hung around.  But, considering we had no other real reason to spend time in the area of 28^th street & Broadway we decided to continue on our way.   Also, we had a paying client waiting.  Note to tourist, if you’re in town and need to find a place that sells 100% human hair visit Broadway and 28^th.  We told the Ethiopian man to wave for us and if he had a chance to say hello, tell O we said hi, and then we headed to the subway.  A minute later as we made our way down the subway steps the Ethiopian man walked up behind us and asked what TV show we were on. Which we still don’t understand why.  Only in New York.

After our meeting with Bad Client and later an early afternoon glasses of wine at Balthazar, I headed back to the hotel.  It was 5:00.  When I got off the N at 23 & B’way the streets were barricaded and mobbed with people and police. I realized 3 hours later Barry still had not shown. I wondered if the old Ethiopian man was still waiting 5 blocks up the street in this heat?

Having nothing else to do (except return calls to people I really didn’t want to speak with) I found a good vantage point along the barricade next to a nice English couple.  They may have been from Milwaukee I'm not sure. We only had a couple of brief verbal exchanges and their accent could have gone either way!

 

I was wearing a sporty Armani brown blazer, white shirt dress shirt, new jeans, really cool pumas, and vintage raybans. Since I was standing at the curve in the road I knew O should have been able to see me clearly.  I assumed the motorcade would screech to a stop and at least he would roll down the window and comment on my style and fashion sense. His taste runs a bit conservative for me, but I don't think he has much choice.  I guess the leader of the free world has to dress as most people expect he should dress.   

After about 30 minutes sure enough O passed by. Now I've always thought Obama, Michele and I would be close friends given the opportunity.  I would be invited to White House dinner parties where after a couple of drinks I would ask if there really were aliens at Roswell or we’d talk about what a dick Mitch McConnell really is! So, I’ve always believed if O and I ran into each other we’ve both make an effort to chat each other up. 

Interestingly enough there were two presidential limousines.  Both cars were adorned with flags and tinted windows.  Even though they moved at a fast pace and with the tinted windows I still could see the first car carried a silver headed man (not Joe VP) and an undistinguishable woman.  In the second, sure enough there he was.  I could easily make him out. 

He didn't stop.  They didn't even slow down.  In fact I could see he was looking forward and didn't even pay me any attention.  Maybe he was busy thinking about his upcoming event.

BTW...I'm now thinking seriously about adding flags to the front of my car.  I know how to accessorize!

There must have been 75 vehicles from start to finish. I couldn’t take pictures of all of them. First of all who cares and how many photos of black SUVs and motorcycles does one need?  Due to an earlier Angry Birds situation while flying to NYC, I was having to turn my phone on and off to save battery life, so I got only one snap and as you can see I did not get him in the pic...but trust me he was there.  

I’ve seen a couple of Presidents at rallies – IE Regan when I was in college, and once at about midnight C drug me to the Atlanta airport when Bush 41 was in town – primarily to see Air Force One up close, which is quite fabulous. 

But, this was my first full on motorcade.  The only thing I’ve seen that even comes close is when Martha Stewart’s caravan hits the NYC streets or once when traffic was blocked forever near my apartment when Moammar Gadhafi showed up at the UN.  The president’s motorcade is far better!  I may not have got my shout out, but it was still worth the wait. 

It was better than the 'end of seaon sale' at Barney's!

Maybe...