Ex-Presidents seem to love the mortgage industry. After seeing former President George W. Bush at a recent industry show in Dallas, I have now seen all the living ex-presidents in mortgage-related sightings!
I actually saw George W. Bush several times at industry events while he was president. However, it wasn't really him, but an impersonator. A really good impersonator, to the point you'd have to look at him two or three times to satisfy yourself a sitting president wasn't casually walking down a crowded hallway at a mortgage event unaccompanied by the Secret Service.
To my recollection, no sitting president has ever addressed a mortgage show. But Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Gerald Ford all have (and add George W. Bush to the crew). With my sighting of President Clinton, a little asterisk is in order. I saw him at the Democratic National Convention that nominated him for president in 1992—but I was there on a press pass based on my job at National Mortgage News.
And yes, I know, President Ford is now deceased. But he was an ex-president when I saw him!
President Ford is the only president I've actually met. At the Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention in San Francisco in 1992, one of the big Wall Street houses, Shearson Lehman if memory serves, rented out a whole museum for a dinner and reception with the ex-President.
Most of the attendees were content to stay at the cocktail party, but we had free run of the museum so I moved off into one of the rooms to look at the art.
Suddenly there was a loud bang and an unseen door opened near me and President Ford and a couple of Secret Service agents walked right past me, at a distance of two or three feet. I'm glad I didn't react quickly, because if I'd thrust out a hand to shake President Ford's hand I might have been wrestled to the ground.
I did get to shake his hand a little later. President Ford was introduced to and gamely shook hands with each of the 300 dinner guests. He then spoke for about an hour, which was a little too long since he spoke before dinner rather than after (since he stayed for the dinner, I couldn't figure out why he spoke so early). The 1992 election was right around the corner, and I remember he spoke about the campaign.
President Clinton I saw on the night he accepted the nomination in New York City. Everyone is familiar with the big convention podiums with the delegates ranged around it in a semi-circle. The press and other media get seated behind the podium. So my first glimpse of President Clinton was from the back, which wasn't his most flattering side. (I also saw an almost-President, Al Gore, that night.)
Going to the convention in person was a great experience I'd recommend to anyone to do once if you get the opportunity. I got to wander through the state delegations and it reminded me of the Chet Huntley-David Brinkley coverage of conventions I'd seen on television as a boy.
President George H.W. Bush was the most surprising of all the ex-presidents I have seen. He was quite relaxed and showed a pretty quick wit when I saw him, I believe in Phoenix at an annual convention of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. He also spoke at an MBA annual in Chicago but I had meetings booked and didn't see him a second time.
President Carter appeared at an MBA annual, taking questions from a journalist, Hugh Trevor-Roper. He stuck to policy issues, making only one little attempt at a joke, when he answered frostily “I was not pleased” at the result of the 1980 presidential election. He impressed me with a formidable intelligence and by the fact that he donated his speaking fee to charity. (Ex-Presidents' time is not cheap, I'm just guessing.)
President George W. Bush appeared at the recent 5 Star Institute in Dallas, preceded by a lot of patriotic singing and dancing, including the waving of American flags (not current ones, I assume) that had an image of the Statue of Liberty on them. President Bush spoke of 9-11 (it was September 13 when he spoke) and his happiness at being out of the headlines.
It seems inevitable there will be more ex-presidents (with President Obama, assuming his continued good health, it's just a question of which year, 2013 or 2017) and they will remain good subjects to speak at mortgage conferences. My only request is, if you are an after-dinner speaker, Mr. ex-President, please speak after dinner, not before!
