If you were invited to meet Trump, Bush, Chris Christie (or name your person) would you accept?

New thread, to avoid thread drift.

I wouldn't walk across the street to meet any of 'em.

I don't think I would accept an opportunity to meet with any of those people 

Hmmm. If I had an animal advocacy bill to push, I'd meet with the devil himself.  I've stood outside of Cornell and tried to persuade vivisectors to stop one of their experiments on cats  and sat across furriers to lobby against the steel leghold trap. Pleaded with folks going into the circus and handed cosmetic testing literature to shoppers outside of Bloomies. If you want to push your agenda, don't you need the votes of those who oppose it?

In terms of "how did that work out" the steel leghold trap was banned in NJ a few years later, the Cornell experiment was stopped and the government will stop animal experiments in about 2035, Senator Lesniak has passed legislation to stop the use of wild animals in the circus, Cory Booker is working on it nationally, Julian Castro has the ban of cosmetic testing as part of his platform. 

And a man I'm sure would be on many people's "don't want to meet that guy" list would be Florida's own GOP congressman Matt Gaetz and guess what he is being honored for :

https://gaetz.house.gov/media/in-the-news/gaetz-be-honored-group-opposing-animal-testing

What kind of security would they have?

You could probably get in a really good hard knee to the nards while shaking hands. I can mostly guess what would then happen. 

I have actually thought about this prior to this thread.  My daughter lives in Japan with her boyfriend who is a Marine Officer.  I asked her if Trump showed up would she meet him.  She rolled her eyes at me and said something to the effect of “only if they let me say FU”.  Asked if boyfriend would, she said “only if they made him”

I agree with Morganna on this one.  I would only meet with them if I had political reasons and something I wanted to push.  Otherwise, no thanks.

A few years ago an old friend of mine who lives in Texas now was bragging on Facebook that her husband was going to receive an award present by George Bush.  It really repulsed me and I was not sure what if I should say something or ignore it and in the end I  decided to say, "Why would you want an award from a war criminal?"   She was shocked and then very angry and denounced me on line without mentioning my name and let everyone know that she met Bush and he was a very nice guy.  I thought about contacting her privately but ended up letting it go.  I had a long talk with a friend, who thought I should have kept my mouth shut.

Later, that friend was on a vacation with her husband and they ended up spending time with another couple who had met and adored Bush.  My friend was really wanting to say something but she did not.  Later she called me and she said she understood how I felt about speaking out and kind of regretted saying nothing.  So, now whenever something like that comes up, we say we had a "George Bush moment." 

If I could tell them to f*ck off, then yes.

My brother has a picture of himself with George and Barbara Bush because he received an award for some sort of medical procedure he developed.  It was way past the Bush presidency.  I don’t think it ever occurred to him that anyone would be “repulsed” by it.  He isn’t a Republican and the award had nothing to do with politics.  I think it would be pretty rude for someone to confront him over it.

I do however, think that Trump is so irredeemable as a human being that I would probably be a bit disturbed by someone taking a picture with him willingly.  Fortunately he is such a egotist I can’t see him giving out awards to anyone but himself.

I look at it this way. These are Presidents or other high-level elected leaders, people of significant historical importance, for better or, these cases, worse. It would be an honor and a rare opportunity to meet any one of them. I would use the opportunity to deliver a concise and strong statement about current policies and priorities. I'd be respectful and a gentleman but I'd make my opinions clear.

I could tell my grandchildren that I met them and I used the opportunity to say my piece and do right by my country. 

i’d rather meet with Dr. Root Canal than these...

campbell29 said:

My brother has a picture of himself with George and Barbara Bush because he received an award for some sort of medical procedure he developed.  It was way past the Bush presidency.  I don’t think it ever occurred to him that anyone would be “repulsed” by it.  He isn’t a Republican and the award had nothing to do with politics.  I think it would be pretty rude for someone to confront him over it.

I do however, think that Trump is so irredeemable as a human being that I would probably be a bit disturbed by someone taking a picture with him willingly.  Fortunately he is such a egotist I can’t see him giving out awards to anyone but himself.

 I could actually envision that: "Given what I have done for myself and the nation, I decided to award my self The Medal of Freedom..... 24k, not the usual 18k."

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

I look at it this way. These are Presidents or other high-level elected leaders, people of significant historical importance, for better or, these cases, worse. It would be an honor and a rare opportunity to meet any one of them. I would use the opportunity to deliver a concise and strong statement about current policies and priorities. I'd be respectful and a gentleman but I'd make my opinions clear.

I could tell my grandchildren that I met them and I used the opportunity to say my piece and do right by my country. 

I had respect for the office of the President until Trump arrived. Before then, I probably would have posed with Bush I or Bush II.  However, the office of the Governor of NJ was a farce many years ago before I cared about NJ politics.  So I would never pose with Christie.

campbell29 said:

My brother has a picture of himself with George and Barbara Bush because he received an award for some sort of medical procedure he developed.  It was way past the Bush presidency.  I don’t think it ever occurred to him that anyone would be “repulsed” by it.  He isn’t a Republican and the award had nothing to do with politics.  I think it would be pretty rude for someone to confront him over it.

I do however, think that Trump is so irredeemable as a human being that I would probably be a bit disturbed by someone taking a picture with him willingly.  Fortunately he is such a egotist I can’t see him giving out awards to anyone but himself.

 I imagine he loves giving out awards, it's his way of showing people how awesome he is for giving you an award. "What a great honor it must be for you to be given the Medal of Freedom by the Best President. Obama would never have given this to you, but I'm so amazing that I noticed what you did and brought you here to meet ME and give you this prestigious award with my inarguably great and powerful hands," he thinks to himself.

ridski said:

 I imagine he loves giving out awards, it's his way of showing people how awesome he is for giving you an award. "What a great honor it must be for you to be given the Medal of Freedom by the Best President. Obama would never have given this to you, but I'm so amazing that I noticed what you did and brought you here to meet ME and give you this prestigious award with my inarguably great and powerful hands," he thinks to himself.

 Exactly.  And the fawning appreciation he receives costs him nothing. 

ridski said:

 I imagine he loves giving out awards, it's his way of showing people how awesome he is for giving you an award. "What a great honor it must be for you to be given the Medal of Freedom by the Best President. Obama would never have given this to you, but I'm so amazing that I noticed what you did and brought you here to meet ME and give you this prestigious award with my inarguably great and powerful hands," he thinks to himself.

 ---and if you get the award from Gropenfuhrer, you also get a Big Mac, fries and Coke with it. Who would turn that down?

I can’t imagine anyone has great enthusiasm for handing out awards for outstanding achievement in Urology.  Seems like for Bush,since he was about 90 and had to sit through the dinner and awards, it was more a punishment than reward.  

Only wearing a suicide vest. 

Depends on the venue

Absolutely not!

You phrased this wrong.  

Christie is beneath contempt.  Wouldn't be caught dead in a room with him.

I had strong feelings about Bush (II) at the time.  Considering the circumstances of his getting elected, and compared with our current president, now I sort of pity him (and shake my head at a political system that made it possible for him to get elected).

I would happily strangle Trump, to stop him from committig any further atrocities.   I have come to the conclusion, that he enjoys being mean to people, and that I cannot abide.

I'm not sure whether I could pull it off but it would be sweet to walk up to a hypothetical monster, shake his hand and then vomit straight into his face.