On a cool and cloudy morning exactly 10 years ago, a day not unlike today, the leader of the free world made a publicly unannounced, closed media visit to OnMilwaukee’s then office at 1504 E. North Ave.
Most of the dozen or so employees of OnMilwaukee.com back then would still probably call it the most surreal day of their lives; George Bush spent more than an hour mingling with the staff before heading upstairs to discuss Social Security reform with a hand-picked group of supporters, including OnMilwaukee.com’s Jeff Sherman and Erin Ulicki.
Back downstairs, in a time before iPhones and Twitter, OnMilwaukee.com was preparing to live blog the visit – something the White House told them had never happened before. They would communicate by phone – and if that didn’t work, by text, on their pre-smartphone phones. They intended to use their sole digital camera to document what they could and swap memory cards later.
The editorial team was to fan out. Managing Editor Bobby Tanzilo was assigned to the international press pool. Publisher Andy Tarnoff would ride in the motorcade. Molly Snyder would hang back at the office and update the dispatches as they came. Sherman would take media calls.
But that plan fell apart when the president invited Sherman and Tarnoff to ride to the Milwaukee Art Museum with him in the presidential limo. The owners of OnMilwaukee.com immediately turned off their phones and soaked in the experience for the next 15 minutes.
When they arrived, the president spoke about the young media company:
"I had an amazing experience. I stopped by a business here called OnMilwaukee.com. (Applause.) A little bit of a following, things are catching on. I rode over here with Jeff Sherman and Andy Tarnoff, two young guys, Milwaukee citizens who started this company – entrepreneurs who took risk and have put out a product people obviously want. It's a fast-growing little business.
I met our participants over there to talk about what we're going to do here, but I also love to see entrepreneurs. You know, part of the role of government is to create an environment in which people are willing to take risk and -- which means low taxes, reasonable regulation. We've got to get rid of all these junk lawsuits that are threatening small businesses, the job creators.
But I want to thank Andy and Jeff and their employees or associates for welcoming me there. And it was – thanks for putting me on the front page of today's edition. (Laughter.)"
Four employees from that day still work at OnMilwaukee: Tarnoff, Sherman, Snyder, Tanzilo and Advertising Director Michelle Bigelow. Here are their recollections from May 19, 2005, the first time they publicly documented the entire experience:
Jeff Sherman: Even 10 years later, a month doesn’t go by that I don’t get asked about this event. To have the leader of the free world visit a business that you helped start and work at, passionately, each day was simply amazing. The security, the process, the hassles, the opportunity, the worldwide press – all equally interesting.
Andy Tarnoff: I didn’t think it was going to happen, but man, it’s made for some good stories. I’m sure my friends are tired of hearing me tell it, but it seemed unreal until the day of, and not being able to announce it was killing me. Still, despite my very negative feeling toward Bush in 2005, I knew this was an international public relations opportunity. It was a coming out party for our young company, and my phone rang off the hook the moment the president clicked publish on the article announcing his visit to OnMilwaukee.com.
JS: I was nervous, for sure. But, like most leaders he had a good presence and was truly engaging. The venue, our old office at 1504 E. North Ave., was far from suitable for a president. But, the administration remade our entrance, tented much of the street, put in new phone and cable lines and — with our help — remade an office into a cafe like setting.
All politics aside (and trust me, there were people here who probably loathed the visit), George W. Bush was the president and we got to spend nearly three hours talking, touring and hanging out. Most people will never get this opportunity.
The security was coordinated and focused. Blocks away and hours before the visit, even at the then Alterra on Prospect, I saw Secret Service at their post. Across the street, there were snipers. The costs and logistics of it all are still mind-boggling.
Michelle Bigelow: Probably the most vivid part of that day was the snipers on the roof and being patted down before entering the building. I'd never consider 1504 E. North Ave. a high security location, but that day I guess it was.
AT: When we came in at 7 a.m., I asked about the bomb dogs. The Secret Service said that if the dogs sit down, we should worry. I noticed footprints on my desk – they had looked in the ceiling tiles. There were a few bug-out bags, for lack of a better word, placed around the office. The lead agent informed me that they weren’t for us. I started to get a little nervous.
Bobby Tanzilo: I remember going to Mitchell to meet Air Force One and join the media contingent in the press van and we watched the plane land and then taxi over toward where we were, and I was surprised by how low-key it all seemed. The president deplaned and headed for the limos and the press hopped in the van and we all drove up to the East Side. I think I expected a scene more like one you'd see on TV, with red, white and blue bunting and a cheering, flag-waving crowd ... or at least middle-finger waving protestors. Instead, it was much like watching a baseball team's beat writers before a game ... very work-a-day and almost anti-climactic. It was definitely an interesting experience.
AT: The night before, I barely slept. I wasn’t so much nervous but anxious. We weren’t supposed to tell anyone, but we let it slip a little. That morning, our office was a zoo. People were pretty excited, and Secret Service were everywhere. One even threatened me with a subpoena if we didn’t turn over our Web logs if someone posted something threatening on the site via a talkback. Nice.
OMC: What did you think when he walked in the door?
MS: He was taller than I expected for some reason.
MB: I remember thinking he looked very short. I'm not sure how tall he actually is, he just seemed short for the president.
AT: I had a terrifying realization when he came in our door. Jeff and I were standing there, and suddenly I thought that literally millions of people would like to see the president dead, and if they blew him up that day, no one would remember that I was there, too.
Finally – it felt like forever – he sauntered in, and I noticed he was shorter than me. He looked a little ragged, sort of unshaven, even though I’m sure he wasn’t. Bush was nothing if not folksy. He immediately took over the situation, introducing himself to the staff. Erin started nervously delivering Jeff’s and my scripted spiel, so I quickly put the kibosh on that and moved him around the room. I assumed we only had a few minutes, so I led him over to my cubicle.
He spotted all my Brewers memorabilia and then started talking baseball. I thanked him for Doug Melvin. He talked about Robin Yount’s 3000th hit, Nolan Ryan’s 300th win and throwing out the first pitches at Miller Park and Yankee Stadium. In his own self-deprecating style, he talked about how his mother told him he picked his nose on TV. We all sort of laughed uncomfortably.
OMC: Do you remember what Bush said to you?
MB: Not really. I was one of the younger staff at the time, only 26, so I felt like much of the conversations were happening around me. I do remember him comparing OMC to a country – Andy, you know the story.
AT: This is a quote, because I have it memorized verbatim. He said, "You guys remind me of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Except you’re a business, and they’re a country." That really happened. It got a little awkward when he had to address the whole group.
MS: My hair had blue streaks in it at the time and he said to me, "I like your hair, but I hope my daughters don't get any ideas like that."
AT: Yeah, I remember every word. I wrote it all down after the fact. I tried to keep the conversation away from politics, although we talked a little about small businesses and Social Security.
OMC: What story do you tell the most about that day?
MS: I mostly express how surreal it was to stand in the same room – the same work cubicle – as the POTUS. No matter what you think of the president, it is still a fascinating, momentous event.
JS: As I was leaving the upstairs, somewhat staged discussion about Social Security reform, the president yelled "Hey, Jeff, come here. Grab Andy, you’re riding with me." Yep, we loaded into the presidential limo and drove from our office to the Milwaukee Art Museum. Protestors on one side, supporters on the other. Bush, at one point, said, "Hey, look at that guy he just flipped me off!"
AT: That was a surprise, because I expected to be in the motorcade. For about 10 minutes, I sat in a white van, in front of my building. I could hear Bob Dylan being blasted out a neighbor’s window, which felt surreal. I heard myself on WTMJ, the first media to cover the event. Then this 20-year-old intern, Joe, opened the door and said, "Come with me, very quickly. Run! You’re riding in the car!" So I sprinted over to the presidential limo, where an agent said, "Get in, opposite the president." I jumped in and clunked heads hard with some guy named Al Hubbard, who was an economic advisor. And there I was, next to Jeff, across from George Bush. Like inches away.
The limo was really more like a tank than a car. I recall how we drove down the middle of the street. How thick the green windows were. How Bush noticed the protestors, and how relaxed he became when the four of us rode privately. I noticed his skinny gold wedding ring, his scuffed shoes and the hair in his ears. The most powerful man in the world was really unbelievably ordinary and affable. I actually liked him on a personal level.
Jeff asked him if he had been to the Art Museum, and he said no. We talked about Calatrava, and his designs of the Athens stadium and the World Trade Center memorial, and a lightbulb went off in Bush’s head. "I met that guy at the White House," he said.
"You know, Andy," he said. "Being the president is a very important job. Not that what you do isn’t important, but I’m the president. I remain strong through faith, family and friends. I’m strong in prayer, I have a good family and good daughters and good friends. After I’m done being president all that will be there."
MS: The amount of preparation it took to prepare our office space and clear everyone to be in the building with him was even more detailed and intense than I expected.
AT: The White House didn’t like our furniture, so they moved all our old stuff downstairs and created a fake office upstairs with rented furniture from Colder’s that didn’t match our aesthetic at all. But really, I was surprised that the Secret Service let the president come to our dilapidated old office. I’m sure it was a bigger security risk than they were comfortable with.
JS: The name calling, post visit, was humorous to say the least. We got called every name in the book by the talkbackers and general public. We were "token right wingers," "opportunists" and "too this and too that." It was very entertaining even in a pre Twitter world.
AT: One blogger said I would burn in a hell of a million dangling chads. Another suggested that our dads were big GOP donors and arranged this all. Jonathan Green (former WTMJ-AM radio host) asked me on the air why Bush came to our little office and not his. I told him that I didn’t ask him that in the limo – a fact he didn’t know about yet – and stopped Green in his tracks.
JS: The praise and congrats, though, were overwhelming. The media calls, e-mails from friends and family – both were nonstop for days. All politics aside, one-on-one, Bush was great. Engaging, personable and thoughtful. When he slipped into "talking point" mode – it was a bit of a different story.
OMC: Did meeting Bush have any effect on your opinion of him?
MS: He was definitely sharper and more attentive than he is made out to be in the media. I saw him more as a colleague or acquaintance or even parent or grandparent that day. Although it did not change my opinion of his politics, it made me like him as a person more than I thought I would.
AT: A little bit. From that point on, I believed he was genuine and honest in his opinions, even if I disagreed with him. With Karl Rove lurking in the shadows, it was clear to me that Bush viewed himself as a leader who took direction from his inner circle. I no longer thought he was evil, but I even told him, in the best way I could, that I disagreed with his invasion of Iraq.
OMC: Do you remember any other unusual details about that day?
BT: The weirdest part of the day, most surely, was the pretend listening session Bush held in my office, his chair sitting right where mine normally was (except that they'd moved it out for the occasion) and me sitting across the room feeling like an outsider in my own office. The next day, everything was back to normal and it was almost as if it had never happened.
AT: Some of the TV people who interviewed me asked me if I voted for him. I kept trying to distance myself from that question. The Journal Sentinel wrote exactly one paragraph about our visit at the end of their long story. They called me a John Kerry supporter, which is something I never said – and the newspaper never asked us any questions.
MB: I remember the office being really clean downstairs and the upper office being completely transformed. Also, I remember the photo with George Bush feeling somewhat awkward.
JS: I’m still truly thankful to my friend Mark Graul who helped bring this visit to the table. He suggested OnMilwaukee.com for the visit and worked with the MMAC and others to make it happen. Thanks, Mark!
AT: Jeff and I took selfies with the president that day. We couldn’t help ourselves. It was the last thing we did with Bush in the limo. On the way out of the Art Museum, he looked at Jeff and me (but mostly Jeff) and said, "I’ll send you those pictures." Funny, because we took the pictures with our cameras.
MS: There were a group of protestors across the street, and when I walked outside to hand a photo card to Bobby, the protestors started booing me. I thought that was funny since I didn't vote for the guy.
