an attendant who by the way i m not sure who knew that this was the secretary of state and the secretary said i ve always wondered something. how do you figure out who gets in the front row or the second row which means you can egress roughly by the time you thought you were going to egress and who gets in the back row because that will take 40 minutes? he said it s very easy. people come in and say good morning or it s snowing out there or traffic is bad today. we put them in the front row, the second row. if they come in with a window wound up, won t look right or left and driving on past, 40 minutes and then they can get out. they will be in the back row. this nugget was so enlightening to secretary powell that he made bold to ask about the certain members of hierarchy in the state department. you ll have to guess. i m not going to tell you who. the majority of them got through
and he was subsmitten on the fi date and the rest is history. you and i got to meet him during the first gulf war. important point. how do you rise from a young black guy as a white house fellow, junior officer, to the pinnacle of american power but to the friends of presidents? a friend of george w. bush, a friend of barack obama and bill clinton. how do you do that? the connection part. i met him during the gulf war. i traveled with him, secretary cheney and general powell, building support for the gulf war around the region. rev we refuel, and not a long conversation, don t want to overstate it. but we re talking about race. i said i went to school in boston. he said public schools? i said yes. that gave me credibility. he asked about military service in the family. my dad was in the army but at the end of korea, but in germany. i had an uncle who did hard combat in korea, and he winced when i explained. he asked what unit. he took the time, a minute,