Rooney On The Presidents He's Met
The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.
We're going to choose a new president on Nov. 4th, which is pretty soon now. I hope it's an improvement.
I'm a little suspicious of both candidates. I'm always suspicious of anyone who wants such a hard job as being president of The United States.
Not only that, I think anyone who thinks he or she is smart enough to be president ought to be counted out because we don't want anyone who has that high an opinion of him or herself.
I have to say "him or her" now so people won't accuse me of being sexist. I am sexist of course. I just don't want to be accused of it.
I was counting them up and I've been lucky to have met eight of the last nine presidents of the United States. I just shook hands with most of them, but Dwight Eisenhower I really knew because I met him often in London when I was a reporter for The Stars and Stripes during WW II. A great American.
I grew up in Albany, N.Y., and I met Franklin D. Roosevelt when he was governor and he came to the school I went to. He spoke that day but I can't remember anything he said.
I met Richard Nixon with a bunch of other reporters in the Rose Garden of the White House years ago. I never liked Nixon but I pretended I did when I met him that day. You don't want to get in bad with the president. He probably knew what I thought though. You can usually tell what someone thinks of you.
I met Jimmy Carter several times - very friendly and it seemed to come naturally to him.
I've met Bill Clinton. I was sitting in a restaurant in New York eating dinner a few years ago when this guy slides into the banquette next to me, holds out his hand and says "Hello. I'm Bill Clinton". I already knew that of course but he couldn't have been friendlier. He wasn't even running for anything because he'd already been president. So, how do you think I feel about Bill Clinton?
One president I've never met is George W. Bush. I've seen him a lot on television, of course.
I'd really like to meet our next president, so I sort of hate to tell you this but I don't know who I'm going to vote for this year. You know why? I'm in this terrible position. I like both Barack Obama and John McCain. I don't think we can go wrong.
Written by Andy Rooney