Romney tops off wedding by posing for pictures with bride and groom
CORRECTION: Due to an erroneous pool report, an earlier version of this story misidentified the group of people who chased down Romney's motorcade. They were standing near a wedding party, but were not part of it.
NEW YORK -- The opportunity to meet the man who may one day be the next president of the United States is often a thrilling -- even exhilarating -- experience. Take Mitt Romney. People often wait in long lines after his speeches, many bearing gifts, for the opportunity to simply shake his hand. Others pay large amounts of money to attend fundraisers where they can take a photograph or share a few private words with the man who one day may occupy the White House.
Some are a bit more extreme.
Case in point: As Romney's motorcade on Wednesday drove through the streets of Lakewood, N.J., en route to a high-dollar fundraiser, the entourage passed a group of Orthodox Jews standing near a wedding party that was posing for photos with a bride and groom, according to a corrected pool report provided to reporters. Upon recognizing that the presumptive Republican nominee was in one of the vehicles, the group of at least 10 began to chase the cavalcade of dark SUVs down the street, leaving the wedding party in their wake.
Waving cameras in the air, the men and women tried to approach Romney's vehicle as it pulled into Lake Terrace Hall, the site of his late-afternoon fundraiser. But, as they quickly learned, it is not easy to get close to a presidential candidate. The group was immediately swarmed by several men wearing dark suits and earpieces.
"Oh, you're Secret Service," one woman said, as she was asked by an agent to move back. "We just want to see Romney."
While a meeting with the potential leader of the free world was not in the cards for those who sprinted after the motorcade, the bride and groom, whose wedding was being held in the same building as Romney's fundraiser, ended up much luckier. According to the mother of the groom, Lisa Ben-Haim, Romney stopped by after his event to pose for pictures with the wedding party.
"We ended up taking many more, and we took videos," Haim said, according to a corrected pool report Thursday from Yahoo News's Holly Bailey. "He was very gracious. And we were all telling him we were happy that he came to our wedding because we are all very strong staunch supporters of his."