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My Solemn Meeting on Veterans Day With President Obama at My Friend's Resting Place in Arlington
New York Daily News ^ | Thursday, November 12, 2009 | James Gordon Meek

Posted on 11/13/2009 10:44:50 AM PST by kristinn

He didn't introduce himself. He didn't have to.

President Obama simply stuck out his hand and asked for my name as he stepped toward me amid a bone-chilling drizzle in the Gardens of Stone.

This was Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. I wasn't there as a reporter, but to visit some friends and family buried there when Obama made an unscheduled stop - a rare presidential walk among what Lincoln called America's "honored dead" - after laying a Veterans Day wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

What I got was an unexpected look into the eyes of a man who intertwined his roles as commander in chief and consoler in chief on a solemn day filled with remembrance and respect for sacrifices made - and sacrifices yet to be made.

I'm sure the cynics will assume this wasjust anotherObama photoop.

If they'd been standing in my boots looking him in the eye, they would have surely choked on their bile.

His presence in Section 60 convinced me that he now carries the heavy burden of command.

I had stopped at Arlington to see the resting place of Ken Taylor, Ed Lenard and Dave Sharrett. Ken and Ed survived their service, in World War II and Korea, and died as old men. Dave did not leave Iraq alive. He was 27.

SNIP

And then Obama noticed a tall, bearded figure. He probably didn't see the mud-caked combat boots I trudged around Afghanistan in a few years ago.

"What's your name?" a somber President asked as he extended his hand.

"James Meek, sir," I replied, struggling to pull off my wool glove and pull my hood back from my head. "I'm here visiting a friend, Pfc. David H. Sharrett II, who was killed in Iraq last year."

SNIP

I then told him I'm a reporter for the Daily News - but was just there to visit friends.

"Well, James," he said, looking me in the eye, "just because you're a journalist doesn't mean you can't honor your friends here."

The First Lady smiled and squeezed my hand. I thanked her for coming to Section 60.

Her face opened up into a smile filled with warmth and comfort, a welcome antidote for the weather and sadness around her. She said there was no finer place to be on Veterans Day.

Ironically, I was ready to leave the cemetery an hour earlier, but it went into lockdown because of Obama's visit.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: arlingtoncemetery; davidhsharrett; davidsharrett; jamesgordonmeek; obama; sharrett; veteransday
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To: kristinn

Rule #1: There is no such thing as a coincidence.


21 posted on 11/13/2009 11:08:32 AM PST by HIDEK6
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To: Republic of Texas

Absolutley.

There is no chance that this guy and zero just happened to bump into each other.
Cheap reporting just like the Times.


22 posted on 11/13/2009 11:08:38 AM PST by Frenchtown Dan
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To: kristinn

Meeks is a anit-bush hack:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/04/22/2009-04-22_dick_cheney_full_of_crap_official.html

Note the link tag:

“dick cheney full of crap”

I wish I could shake meeks hand.....and give him an electricians grip....

GRRRR

man....Today was designed to piss me off I guess...

From moving KSM to our courts to stopping coal mining for a bug...

It can no longer be denied that Obama want to fundmentaly remake america is his own image....and he’s perfectly will to destroy america as we know it to bring it about...

“Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this reformation requires that the organizer work inside the system, among not only the middle class but the 40 per cent of American families – more than seventy million people – whose income range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year [in 1971]. They cannot be dismissed by labeling them blue collar or hard hat. They will not continue to be relatively passive and slightly challenging. If we fail to communicate with them, if we don’t encourage them to form alliances with us, they will move to the right. Maybe they will anyway, but let’s not let it happen by default.” Saul Alinski- rules for radicals


23 posted on 11/13/2009 11:09:11 AM PST by Crim
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To: kristinn

It’s all about him. It always is and always will be as long as he retains the power to control the scene.


24 posted on 11/13/2009 11:09:22 AM PST by TADSLOS (Prayers to our Fort Hood Soldiers and Families)
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To: kristinn
"Well, James," he said, looking me in the eye, "just because you're a journalist doesn't mean you can't honor your friends here."

HUH!?!?!? What?????

25 posted on 11/13/2009 11:10:13 AM PST by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.....)
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To: kristinn

Careful or you’ll choke on your bile.


26 posted on 11/13/2009 11:10:36 AM PST by IronJack (=)
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To: kristinn

“Meek also has broken a series of stories about abuses of inmates at the U.S. terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”


27 posted on 11/13/2009 11:10:44 AM PST by NowApproachingMidnight (purple durple lips)
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To: kristinn

This “piece” has the stench of Bill Ayers.


28 posted on 11/13/2009 11:12:02 AM PST by Jo Nuvark (Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. Gen 12:3)
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To: riri

The troops love President Bush, and the lying media never wrote heartwarming stories like this one to bolster his standing with the troops. If anything, they either ignored it or tried to undermine him, throwing every cynical excuse they could muster to try to deny the reciprocation of admiration and respect between him and the troops.


29 posted on 11/13/2009 11:16:13 AM PST by mrsmel
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To: kristinn
“I’m sure the cynics will assume this wasjust anotherObama photoop.”

If not, then why is he writing about it? He could have had his moment with Obama and not written a story about it...

30 posted on 11/13/2009 11:16:18 AM PST by HereInTheHeartland (The End of an Error - 01/20/2013)
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To: kristinn

THIS STORY NEED TO BE FACT-CHECKED


31 posted on 11/13/2009 11:20:05 AM PST by paterfamilias
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To: Frenchtown Dan
The secret service wouldn't let this just happen. They clear the area first, so he had to be a plant.

Exactly.

32 posted on 11/13/2009 11:20:08 AM PST by Churchillspirit (9/11/01...NEVER FORGET.)
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To: kabar

Small world. What a “coincidence.”


33 posted on 11/13/2009 11:20:18 AM PST by smokingfrog (Well, are you gonna draw those pistols or whistle Dixie? Spit!)
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To: kristinn

THIS STORY NEEDS TO BE FACT-CHECKED


34 posted on 11/13/2009 11:20:25 AM PST by paterfamilias
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To: kristinn

“...Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery...a rare presidential walk
among what Lincoln called America’s “honored dead”...”
- - -
Lincoln never saw Arlington Cemetery.


35 posted on 11/13/2009 11:22:12 AM PST by Repeal The 17th (I AM JIM THOMPSON!)
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To: kristinn
I'm sure the cynics those who do not believe Obama is a diety will (rightly)assume this was just another Obama photoop. But that would only be half the story. Not only was it another contrived Obama photoop, but it was also the basis for yet another fake puff piece.

A few edits to make it fake but accurate.
36 posted on 11/13/2009 11:23:02 AM PST by chrisser (Tweet not, lest ye a twit be.)
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To: kristinn

Pulled off his gloves and took his hoody off....Yeh, security is lame around Obama??


37 posted on 11/13/2009 11:23:28 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: kristinn

38 posted on 11/13/2009 11:24:28 AM PST by smokingfrog (Well, are you gonna draw those pistols or whistle Dixie? Spit!)
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To: Frenchtown Dan

Yea...I said the same thing...many posts later....


39 posted on 11/13/2009 11:25:07 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: DogBarkTree
If they’d been standing in my boots looking him in the eye, they would have surely choked on their bile.

If I'd have been standing in my boots looking 0bama in the eye I'd have been choking on something, all right. And it wouldn't be on my bile!!!

40 posted on 11/13/2009 11:29:42 AM PST by jdsteel (CONGRESS: Take it again in twenty ten.)
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