As President Barack Obama made his way around the room of dignitaries, guests and other Washington movers and shakers at a White House reception in December, Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe had no idea what the commander in chief would say.
Would he offer a piece of political advice, tell a joke or maybe even let the mayor in on some classified information locked away in a file cabinet in the bowels of the Pentagon?
When the time came to shake hands, the president instead offered Lowe an apology. It wasn’t the type of “apology” conservative cable news commentators pounce on nor the one GOP presidential hopefuls write books on.
This one was legitimately out of the president’s control.
“I’m sorry you had to travel all the way up here for this weather,” the president told Lowe in reference to the frosty D.C. atmosphere.
“Actually, Mr. President,” Lowe replied, “it’s pretty cold in Florida, too.”
The brief exchange was part of a one-day trip Lowe made to the nation’s capital last month at the invitation of the president and the First Lady. Lowe said he paid for the trip, not taxpayers.
“It’s always exciting to go to the nation’s capital,” Lowe said.
The mayor’s brief conversation with the president touched on other topics besides weather forecasts.
He congratulated Lowe on his handling of the planned Dove World Outreach Center Quran burning, which got national headlines last fall but was scrapped amid public pressure and criticism, including pressure from the president.
For Lowe, the encounter served as a refreshing reassurance of the work his administration has done in the past year.
“It was heartening to know that the president knew about Gainesville and to know that we’re a place on the map for the administration,” he said.
