Robin Meade On Skydiving With President Bush: "I Kept Wondering If I Would Lose My Cookies In Front Of A President"

HLN anchor Robin Meade told the Huffington Post about her skydive with former President George H.W. Bush, which took place Friday on Bush's 85th birthday in Maine.

"People kept asking all week leading up to this, 'Are you afraid?'" Meade said. "And my answer, up until about 1PM Friday, was: no, I'm thinking more about the interview with President Bush 41 and keeping focused on that, and then I can think about the jump. I gotta tell you, the whole way up in the plane ride I kept wondering if I would lose my cookies in front of a president, his family on the ground and on national television. I'm happy to say I never needed the 'party bag"...but when they said in the plane, 'It's time to go," I told my producer my that my knees were shaking. That's when I finally got nervous."

Meade said that while airborne, she "kept sucking down some oxygen for fear I'd get sick," while the former President was consumed looking for his family's Kennebunkport home.

"In the plane, he kept looking for the Bush summer home out the window," she said.

As for the skydive itself, Meade said "the first two or three seconds in free fall didn't feel so hot" but after her body adjusted it felt more like she was flying.

"I think I grunted or squealed once or twice in the jump and when the parachute opens," she said. "It rips and jerks you upward. After the parachute opened I could speak to my tandem partner, Sgt. First Class Kurt Isenbarger, originally from Ohio. He asked as we were parachuting if I wanted to spin and show off and come in fast. I said, no I definitely didn't want to spin. We were coming in fast enough!"

Meade added that she and the former President set a date to skydive again in five years.

"President Bush invited me to go again when he turns 90." she said. "Deal!"

Watch her report:

PHOTOS:

• • • • • • Robin Meade interviews President George H. W. Bush in Kennebunkport shortly before they skydived together.

Photos: Jeremy Freeman/CNN

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Comments

[jsgaetano]

01:39 PM on 06/16/2009

Don't worry Robin, GHWB wasn't much of a president anyway.

[Nathaniel]

09:10 AM on 06/16/2009

Can someone tell me who paid for all this? Really want to see breakdown.
Bet WE paid for most of it.

[Okieborn]

11:14 PM on 06/15/2009

Hmmmm!!
I think That I am envious !!
Oh Well !!!

[ManhattanMC]

04:43 PM on 06/15/2009

Stark contrast.

Spoiled rich guy sky diving
while Jimmy Carter builds houses for poor people.

[jonez]

05:27 PM on 06/15/2009

Carter's too boring. Go for it Bush !!

[dax49]

09:40 AM on 06/16/2009

you sound as shallow as george- and will probably end up in disgrace, too

[jsgaetano]

01:41 PM on 06/16/2009

Don't you know? Conservatives hate poor people.

If God loved them, they wouldn't be poor. Money is just a way of measuring God's love.

[richdibo]

03:47 PM on 06/15/2009

At least Poppy poses a lesser danger to the public in the sky - he can't skydive with his golf clubs.

Poppy's slices from the fairway - ouch!

[Big0725]

03:41 PM on 06/15/2009

Flounder: "I can't beleive I threw up in front of Dean Wormer"

Pinto: "You threw up ON Dean Wormer"

[jtmoney]

03:38 PM on 06/15/2009

and if dubya were flying the plane, they'd definately need the chutes.

[jtmoney]

03:37 PM on 06/15/2009

the last real fiscaly conservative republican in washington, really. he did raise taxes b/c the reagan era spending racked up the defits in the 80s. cost him reelection, but hey, it is what it is.

i could only hope i can sky dive when i'm 85.

[MathIsTruth]

05:50 PM on 06/15/2009

If anything, promising something he couldn't deliver cost him the election. No one forced him to make the "read my lips" speech.

[richdibo]

03:25 PM on 06/15/2009

"I kept wondering if I would lose my cookies in front of a president."

If that president were GWB, given all the formidable challenges that he made to my peristalsis for the past decade, I definitely would - preferably with cookie pieces splashed all over him.

[GrkAm]

03:23 PM on 06/15/2009

In response to the headlines, I just have one thing to say to Robin.

You shouldn't have worried about "losing your cookies in front of a President". I'm sure he would understand. During his presidency he lost his cookies in front of a world leader while on a foreign nation tour in front of everyone at the dinner, and the international community.

It could happen to anyone!

[Teritt]

03:10 PM on 06/15/2009

I'd rather read about Robin on the media page than see Morning joe and his assinine book everytime I log on. I switched from Morning Joe to HLN...Robin is at least entertaining for the first half hour, then it's time to switch channels.

[ignorantwillyharper]

03:01 PM on 06/15/2009

I wish "W" could have jumped with them...minus a chute.

[freshnotbitter]

02:44 PM on 06/15/2009

Easily the most irritating news story of the year, every year.

George Bush pere was easily the worst president of the century.

[Colmore]

05:19 PM on 06/16/2009

Jr. finally topped his Daddy in something, he was the WORST president EVER.

[mizerello]

02:39 PM on 06/15/2009

While Iran was burning, CNN devoted hours of "coverage" to the former President jumping out of a plane and Robin's "interview." And they wonder why no-one watches them anymore? Quite frankly, this is just another opportunity for Sr. to try to repair the family name. Anytime he's "interviewed" he always bring up his "boys." I don't know why this family can't go back to Texas and stay there.

[dax49]

09:43 AM on 06/16/2009

you should have seen the slobbering kiss-up job fox did on this idiotic story

[GF646]

01:56 PM on 06/15/2009

George H. W. Bush is looking more like Hugh Heffner every day! Robin Meade has a terrific publicity agent. Maybe she should get dressed as a playboy bunny and have another photo-op with Pappy.