Thursday, July 8, 2010

Visit With My Boss

I had a busy 4th of July weekend, since my boss Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Baku. On Saturday night I worked right through until sometime around 3 AM, caught some sleep, and then started working again throughout the 4th. It was worth it, as she had one of the smoothest visits (or so we were told). It is always hectic, but a little exhilarating to work on such visits. I have worked on visits for several Presidents and Vice Presidents and for every Secretary of State since Warren Christopher.

One of the oddest jobs I did was to be a seat-filler for a speech President Clinton did at Moscow State University. The First Lady was sitting in a roped off area with a lot of empty seats, and since CNN was taping it they didn't want to see a bunch of empty seats around Mrs. Clinton. They drafted a number of us at the embassy to put on our best suits and fill those empty seats. I happened to be the person who sat next to Hillary. She nodded and said 'Hi', and that was about it.

Hillary came to the embassy in Baku after her meetings with the Azeri president. She spoke to all the diplomats, family members, and local staff and then did a walk-around to shake hands with everyone. It didn't allow for the best pictures, so below is the best I could find. It shows me with my two sons. My older son Anton is shaking her hand.

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9 comments:

  1. February GraceJuly 8, 2010 at 6:52 AM

    Wow.

    I don't know what else to say, Ted, just WOW!

    Fine looking boys too :) Thanks for posting this you know I was curious to see your boss in action!

    Such a great name too for your son- one of my great grandfathers was named Anton.

    bru

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  2. Ted CrossJuly 8, 2010 at 7:04 AM

    Thanks, Bru. My wife and I both loved the name Anton, but we couldn't agree on the name for our second. We ended up having to go to our secondary lists before we could agree on Alexei.

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  3. TaleiJuly 8, 2010 at 11:53 AM

    How fantastic! What a great photo too for your sons. I love the 'seat filler' experience. Who would've thought? ;)

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  4. Tessa QuinJuly 8, 2010 at 12:01 PM

    Hillary Clinton, goodness! Your sons look so cute. I think I was around 11 or 12 years old when I shook the hand of Vigdis Finnbogadottir (former female president of Iceland, as you probably already know), and I still remember how excited I was.

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  5. Ted CrossJuly 8, 2010 at 12:12 PM

    Tessa, I played against someone last year named Tinna Finbogadottir, but in Iceland it's hard for Americans like me to know who is related to whom!

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  6. Matthew MacNishJuly 8, 2010 at 12:59 PM

    That's awesome Ted! Whatever one might think about Hilary's politics you can't deny she is one accomplished lady.

    And Anton is an awesome name ... as in Chekhov? Very cool.

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  7. vic caswell July 8, 2010 at 1:37 PM

    very cool. i bet your boys will remember it all their lives.

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  8. Alex J. CavanaughJuly 8, 2010 at 2:54 PM

    "Seat filler for Hillary Clinton" - that must look interesting on a resume!

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  9. Dr. MohamedJuly 8, 2010 at 9:36 PM

    Very cool and a wonderful set of experiences from which to draw when writing fiction.

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