It's not every day that the man in the White House comes to dinner at your house.
President Barack Obama paid a visit to the Bingham Farms home of Denise Ilitch April 18 to raise money for his re-election campaign. This was one of those suppers that costs money. Media reports put the price of admission at $40,000 for the cocktail reception and $10,000 for dinner and a photo.
Ilitch, in addition to serving on the University of Michigan Board of Regents, is a mom, wife, Democrat, owner of a jewelry business and an almost-candidate for governor. She also co-publishes Ambassador, a large-format, glossy magazine with really big photos that comes out every other month.
Ilitch has been pretty quiet about this important evening in her life. That's why we eagerly awaited the next issue of Ambassador, figuring she was keeping all the news for her own publication.
We were right. In the publisher's letter , she addresses the presidential visit. Sort of. In the third person. Without a lot of details. In fact, with only two details. We counted.
"Denise was fortunate to host President Obama for a fundraising dinner at her home," the letter says. (Detail No. 1)"While the guest list is not public (Top Secret, etc.), let's just say there was a great representation from our city at Denise's home to greet the leader of the free world."
(Guest list is top secret? The White House releases the lists of guests for state dinners. And you can watch them enter on C-SPAN.)
The letter continues: "Luciano Del Signore prepared a world-class meal (Detail No. 2) for the guests and a good time was had by all."
That's it.
C'mon, Denise. You're a publisher of a magazine that carries important news of metro Detroit happenings. This was a happening! We saw the presidential motorcade that night, and it was so long it looked like a traffic jam traveling at 60 miles an hour. Very impressive, especially those guys in the black SUV with the automatic weapons sticking out of the back.
The publisher's letter also contains a defense of the president in which Ilitch expresses amazement at the negative way some people speak about Obama
"Where we come from, meeting a President is a big deal, whether he is a member of your political party or not, the office of the President deserves respect (sic). He is, by the way, the most powerful man in the world. Anytime the President has Michigan on his radar it's a good deal for ALL of us!"
Amen to that.
