MY ROCKY MOMENT WITH GEORGE W. BUSH

THE NEWS CONFERENCE WHERE HE HAD A QUESTION FOR ME!

The recent G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, has reminded me of my amusing encounter with George W. Bush at the equivalent summit in the same mountain village twenty-three years ago.

Back then it was the G8, because Vladimir Putin was then within the international fold, and I was working with the one and only Adam Boulton, the then Political Editor of Sky News.

What people might not realise is that the leaders were ensconced in a small ski resort in the Rocky Mountains, while the vast majority of the world’s news organisations based themselves at the media centre in Calgary.

This was probably because you had to get up very early in the morning and negotiate thirteen check-points on a mini-bus journey to join the world’s leaders.

When Adam, our cameraman and I eventually got up there and were invited into a news conference with Bush and the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, we were surprisingly the only Brits there. Either because we were especially intrepid, or especially daft.

The rest of the following media pack was entirely made up of the US journalists in the White House pool.

Pushing and shoving, we all poured into one end of a very long room, and it was clear the President and the PM were going to appear at the other end, so far away that the camera operator had to set up a boom microphone. Basically, this is a mic’ on a long pole.

There was no sound assistant — so I had to be the one who held the boom mic’ throughout the news conference. Imagine a pole vaulter as they hoist the pole high and horizontal just as they start their run. That was my position.

Before the protagonists appeared some orders were barked. Four questions. Two for the Americans, two for the British. Adam and I were the only British journalists, so that was clear.

Adam asked his question like a Political Editor should. I asked mine like a pole vaulter would, just before starting his run.

Then it was all over. But hold on. You could see Bush stop and think as he was going out of the door, and then turn back.

“Hey! Mr. Sound Man! Are you a legitimate reporter?”

So now it was obviously the President’s turn to ask the questions.

My utterly lame reply was: “Yes, I am, Sir.” It’s the kind of pathetic thing you say when not exactly expecting to be asked a tricky question by the POTUS.

Anyway, Blair smoothed things into amusing banter territory by saying: “Ha, George, I think it’s an example of good old fashioned British multi-skilling.”

Two years earlier, Bush had only been elected by the skin of his teeth when the Supreme Court ruled in his favour (and against Al Gore) over the count in Florida. So I wondered later what would have happened if I’d said: “Yes, I am, Sir. Are you a legitimate President?”

Even if I’d thought of it, I would never have dared say it. And I’m sure my G8 accreditation might have been swiftly withdrawn.

Of course, the smart answer would have been: “Yes, I am Mr. President. I’m just not a legitimate sound man.”

Or pole vaulter, for that matter.