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Carl Weiser,
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Howard Wilkinson,
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Thursday, February 23, 2006

"Kind of like Christmas"

The president was only visible to the public at the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport for about five minutes.

Yet that five minutes the president was visible before leaving in the presidential motorcade created enough excitement from the spectators.

A contingent of more than 50 local residents behind barricades at the airport waived enthusiastically and raised their cameras and children into the air to view Bush exit the plane at 4 p.m.

"There’s the president, Tyler," said Dawn McKenna, of Lebanon, to her 17-month-old grandson she held in her arms. "Look."

For about five minutes at the airport, Bush met with local Republican U.S. Reps. Jean Schmidt and Steve Chabot as well as local Republican leaders and DeWine supporters.
Most of the spectators at the airport received special invitations from airport employees or secret service staff.

Evan Martin skipped class from Scott High School in Taylor Mill to see the president fly into Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Martin, 16, a self-described Bush fan, said he watches the president’s speeches and actions every night on Fox News.

"I am a big fan of his," Martin beamed. "I have been watching him on television everyday. I watch Fox News a lot. I’m just excited to be here."

Dan Henson, of Milford, said didn’t pass up the invitation from an airport employee to see the president land in Air Force One. Thursday marked his second time seeing Bush in person. The first time was at a campaign stop on Halloween in Great American Ballpark.

Presidential visits have the atmosphere of a holiday, he said.

"It is several hours of waiting and anticipation and then it seems really brief," Henson said. "It is kind of like Christmas. You hurry up and wait and then it happens."

Justin Scher, and employee at the airport and Florence resident, had his camera ready to capture an image of Bush. The highest official in the country he had ever seen prior to Thursday was former Vice President Dan Quayle.

"It is pretty exciting," Scher said. "It is a once in a lifetime opportunity."


14 Comments:

at 9:18 PM, February 23, 2006 Blogger WestEnder said...

Kind of like Christmas, huh?

If he only knew...

 
at 9:35 PM, February 23, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would have liked to have saw him. I was stuck in traffic in Covington when they closed the interstate down around 4:00.

 
at 10:10 PM, February 23, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Only in Cincinnati, would a lame-duck president making a brief money-grabbing appearance be considered anything resembling christmas.

 
at 11:26 PM, February 23, 2006 Blogger RantinRay said...

I used part of my vacation time to protest. Time well spent. See http://unrelated.net/antiwar for story and pictures.

 
at 11:50 PM, February 23, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

How cute, please don't hold back on your admiration for the emperor. He wears no clothes and the Enquirer is a republican rag.

 
at 12:00 AM, February 24, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

...and it was just *so* nice that he came through right before rush hour and shut the highway down...

sigh...

 
at 7:31 AM, February 24, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder if the President washed his hands after shaking them with Mean Jean?

 
at 9:48 AM, February 24, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are right, anonymous 10:10.

If you want to talk about Christmas, you have to talk about how it came early in 2004.

When we all woke up on November 3rd and found out thet Kerry was the lame-est of all.

:-)

 
at 10:15 AM, February 24, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, but I bet she had to have some time alone to herself after meeting the great leader.

 
at 10:17 AM, February 24, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

If Bush's visit was like Christmas, then why did Mike Dewine get all of the presents?

 
at 12:44 PM, February 24, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

yuk yuk another Kerry joke.

Here's a tip: politics isn't football. You don't just pick someone and root for him, regardless of his ineptitude. American troops are dying, medicare is more expensive, insurance is not affordable, the GOP leadership is corrupt , Iraq is descending into civil war and you make a Kerry joke.

Your guy is the Mike Brown of presidents.

 
at 1:24 PM, February 24, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Question for Kimball Perry and/or Howard Wilkinson:

You both always post your full names on your blog posts.

Who is Carl who posted all of the Bush comments? Is it Carl Weiser, assistant editor for government/public affairs? He's the only Carl listed on the Enquirer's online masthead: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=CONTACT

Please post your response(s) on the blog.

I also think that Enquirer staffers should have to identify themselves by their full names.

 
at 3:49 PM, February 24, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

If only "W" could start hanging with that Southgate, MI pioneer again !

I'd love to see a picture of him shaking his hand on Feb. 25, 2006.

 
at 8:48 PM, February 26, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope Evan Martin gets a detention for skipping class.

 
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