How Lenny Skutnik, Reagan’s SOTU Hero, Soured on Obama’s America (Flashback)

Skip to comments.

Posted on 01/29/2025 11:20:51 PM PST by 11th_VA

At some point during tonight’s State of the Union, President Barack Obama will likely glance up and to the left of his podium, gesture toward the gallery, and mention one of the unknown Americans seated in the first lady’s box. This year their names include Edith Childs and Earl Smith, but insiders have a different name for them: “Skutniks,” in reference to the first everyday American invited by a president to embellish the State of the Union.

Lenny Skutnik was a local hero, a Congressional Budget Office employee who plunged into the frigid Potomac after an Air Florida plane crash and saved the life of Priscilla Tirado, who was struggling to hold on to a helicopter lifeline. The act was captured on television, and President Ronald Reagan capitalized on Skutnik’s heroism by inviting him to sit next to the first lady. When Reagan recognized him during the speech, it set off a decades-long tradition of presidents using ordinary citizens as talking points.

Over the years, “Skutniks” have included a widow of a 9/11 victim and Daniel Hernandez, who saved Gabby Giffords’ life, in addition to some non-ordinary folks such as Afghan president Hamid Karzai and baseball player Sammy Sosa.

But what about the original?

We tracked Lenny Skutnik down at River Ridge, a senior community in Woodbridge, Virginia, where he moved after retiring from the Congressional Budget Office in 2010. Referred to by the CBO as its “most famous employee,” Skutnik now spends his days fishing and watching Chris Matthews and Bill O’Reilly, and—as it turns out—despairing about the state of the union…

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...

Click here: to donate by Credit Card

Or here: to donate by PayPal

Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

Thank you very much and God bless you.

Lenny attended the SOTU in 1982 after Flt 90 crashed taking off from National Airport, he jumped in the icy Potomac and saved a stewardess

1 posted on 01/29/2025 11:20:51 PM PST by 11th_VA

To: 11th_VA

2 posted on 01/29/2025 11:23:57 PM PST by Ken H (Trump 2024)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson