Look at what The Washington Post had to say about it
WASHINGTON — President Bush was the host of the annual congressional picnic Thursday at the White House, but it was his chief of staff’s band that came close to stealing the show. (more)
A little over a week ago, my dad gets a call from Tabetha Mueller, a family friend of ours that I taught Vacation Bible School music with one year and my dad played in a band with for several years. She said that she was playing in a band and they needed a rhythym guitarist to help fill out their sound for an upcoming event at the White House. 
She explained that she was playing in a band called The Compassionates with Josh Bolten (the president’s current chief of staff, the president’s former economic advisor, and her father (the president’s former chief of staff). The set was three classic rock songs, and she could probably get my family in to the congressional picnic. He accepted.
My mom, sister, and I took the metro downtown and walked to the White House. We enjoyed the beautiful house, appetizers, dinner, The Compassionates in concert, and dessert, interrupted by a photo shoot and autograph signing with the president. It was a beautiful evening for a picnic. It was originally scheduled for yesterday, but pushed back because of a chance of rain. The only downside of the date change was that we missed Laura’s high school baccalaureate service and Tabetha’s dad was unable to join the band. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer evening, and everyone that we interacted with at the White House was extremely nice.
Bush is much better with people than I realized. He may not be my favorite president (or even close), but it was amazing to spend an evening at an official event thrown by the president of the world’s super power nation. It’s also too bad that the rumors of Bill and Hillary attending proved to be untrue. Meeting two presidents in one night would have been ridiculous.
UPDATE: it appears a clip of me holding my camera from this event appeared on MSNBC around noon yesterday.
2 replies on “So I had an adventure tonight”
Oh, goodness. Now you think you’re special because you had your picture taken with a prominent Republican with low approval ratings. Don’t make me get out my pictures of me and Jerry Kilgore. =P
He may not be popular, but he’s still the president. I think that it would have been a good time regardless of who the president was, what party was in power, or how popular he was. I think you’re just jealous that you didn’t get invited :-P.