Mr. Obama Goes to College Station

President Obama was in town yesterday for an event on volunteerism with George H.W Bush. The event itself was by invite only, so the only students that were able to attend were "student leaders." But I was OK, because I didn't want to have to wait in line for 3 hours anyway.

In the afternoon, as I was working in my office, our career services guy came around and said there was going to be an informal leadership event with Bush 41 and Defense Secretary and former Aggie president Bob Gates. Going to events with 41 happens every so often around here. It was at the Corps of Cadets dining hall, which meant a bunch of them would be there, but I decided to attend despite that, with a number of classmates of mine.

We got to the dining hall, where we were feted with cookies and lemonade in faux fancy cups. We could see the Secret Service people making their preparations. But then, a gaggle of media showed up, elbowing and jockeying each other to get into position (they were actually quite aggressive). I thought that was odd, since Bush is always around, meaning it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Then a convoy with flashing lights pulled right up to the door of the dining hall, and Obama himself walked into the room, to the whoops of the assembled crowd.

Here's a story about the event, with video. He gave a short spiel honoring Bush and Gates, talked about public service, then went around the room shaking hands. I missed out on a handshake by about 6 feet or so. If I would have yelled "socialist!" or "you lie!" he totally would have heard me. It was a neat experience.

After this, I walked through the designated protest area. Although most protesters had dispersed, there were some remnants. I saw a lot of senior citizens walking back to their cars, signs in hand. I don't really think of old people as the protesting type, but I guess they are. There were also a lot of non-conservative protesters, like the Lyndon LaRouche people (they were the ones with the Obama/Hitler signs. Don't blame Republicans). There were also some signs about how the Federal Reserve is bad. As far as I can tell, the protesters took heed of the entire morning's worth of obnoxious Facebook admonitions imploring Aggies to not embarrass the University at these protests, so people should be happy about that.