Day 5 (January 14, 2009)

From Ben Koch ‘10…

White House press secretary speaks

Today, I was excited to see the C-SPAN trucks outside of the auditorium once again.  The schedule of speakers said only “Guests TBA”, so I was unsure what or who to expect.  However, a short young woman with blonde hair walked into the auditorium and up to the front where the host of Washington Journal Live Steve Scully was preparing for the show and began talking with him.  I’ve seen her before, I thought to myself, but I wasn’t recalling exactly where.  Then the announcement was made, our guest today would be White House press secretary Dana Perino!  This was going to be an interesting show, guaranteed.  The live broadcast began with much the same pomp and circumstance as the day before, and I was feeling like a veteran by this point.  Dana began by explaining a little bit of what President George W. Bush had been up to the last few days.  She said that the First Lady was busy packing and that President Bush was as busy as ever working with the Obama transition team.  Press Secretary Perino said that her job was to be “responsible for the care and feeding of the press.”   She explained that this entailed getting to the White House by 6:20 AM each morning and reading a binder of information at home each night.  She does her job well.  Several students asked questions that reflected President Bush in a less than positive light.  Her responses were always quick, well defended and difficult to counter-argue.  She was asked what one myth she would dispel about President George W. Bush and said that the most frustrating myth is that President Bush has “gone it alone” in world affairs.  She said that he has “good relations around the world” and that “[other nations] trust him”.  Another interesting, and funny moment is when she addressed Bush-isms.  She said that part of her job was also to correct any comments made by the President that may have been interpreted wrong.  Press Secretary Perino said that new mediums such as youtube have made her job even more interesting because of off the cuff statements that can be recorded and posted at almost any time.  For example, at a recent event President Bush was overheard saying “Wall Street got drunk, we all got the hangover”.  Her discussion was very engaging and the audience hung on every word she said, she was after all the mouth of George W. Bush.  The question was not asked, but I wanted to ask her how she handles situations when personal convictions or beliefs run against decisions or information she is reporting or asked to report.  Often people call her position the “spin doctor”.   I would be curious to know exactly how much of that is true.  Maybe she will write a book someday.

Canadian Embassy and Obama Motorcade

My afternoon took me to the Canadian Embassy to visit and hear about Canadian involvement in Washington and United States policies.   The Embassy building itself was impressive and ornate.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I didn’t expect the building to be so large (this seems to be a theme, confused expectations and buildings being larger than imagined).  From the Embassy the United States Capitol building could be seen straight ahead.  The Canadian Embassy was the closest embassy to the Capitol building which the Canadian representative said was indicative of the close relation between the United States and Canada.  The representative answered questions from students for over an hour.  A theme I kept hearing repeated was just how excited Canadians, and the rest of the world, were for the Obama Inauguration.    The representative said that many world leaders and their countries are looking forward to associating closely with the Obama Administration.  I wonder if this will continue beyond the initial excitement of having a new President?  The Canadian Embassy is hosting a large celebration event at their Embassy which will feature the Chicago Bears!  On our way out of the embassy, we encountered closed roads and police officers everywhere.  Something was happening, someone was on the move.  I walked up to a police officer patrolling the curb in front of the embassy and struck up a conversation.  He was very polite and answered many questions.  Then he asked if I knew who was going to be coming through here.  Of course I did not.  Obama, he said. WHOA!  Over the walkie-talkie at his side I heard “departure” followed by “on the move”.  Then the motorcade followed-motorcycles, police cars, SUV’s, ambulances and even a helicopter overhead.  I waved at the motorcade hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of President-elect.  While I can’t be sure, I’m pretty sure that I did see him in one of the middle SUV’s.  Again, the windows were all tinted, but I think that it was probably him in there.   To think, I was 150 feet from Obama!  An interesting thing I noticed was that the motorcade was missing the traditional flags that are on the cars of heads of state.  I found the motorcade to be quite impressive, I wonder how much more so this will be after the Inauguration.

Pentagon Memorial at Night

I met after this with my group in Union Station to discuss all of the days activities.  My faculty advisor, Nancy Cade, from Pikeville College in Kentucky, helped prepare us for the Inauguration day.  She asked us if we have any concept of what a million people will be like.  I have no idea what a million people will be like, much less 2 to 4 million which are expected on that day.  I felt overwhelmed at the thought, but look forward to experiencing something of such magnitude!  I had the rest of the evening free so I decided to go to the Pentagon to see the 9/11 Memorial.  I rode the metro to the “Pentagon” stop and when I got off of the escalator I was surprised to find that the Pentagon was literally right next to me!  Here was the center of all defense and military operations and I was right next to it!  I began looking for the memorial and found signs that lead me 3/5 of the way around the building.  This was a long walk.   It was rush hour and many people were going home from work.  I was struck with just how normal they looked.  Not always military personnel, but easily someone’s mom, dad or grandma.  There were signs everywhere about military IDs, and not cameras.  I was a little intimidated walking around the building.  I finally found myself at the 9/11 memorial.  It was inexpressibly beautiful and haunting.  I remember when the Pentagon was hit.  I remember hearing on the news, seeing pictures and much more.  Yet here I was, paying respects at literally the same place where the building was hit and the lives were lost.  The memorial features smooth benches with an almost wing-like appearance, representing the lives lost both on the plane and on the building, depending which way the bench pointed.  Each bench represents a life that was lost and is arranged in order from youngest to oldest.  The youngest was born in 1998 and was three years old.  Underneath each bench is a section of flowing water and a soft green light illuminated each.  I pondered the artistic meaning behind the symbolism of this memorial.  I uttered the words “thank you” and left to walk back in the cold.  There were a lot of things on my mind.