 While President Barack Obama was in France to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, meeting up with wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia, White House assistant press secretary Tommy Vietor had something more poetic in mind. Since the First Lady was in town, her press secretary Katie McCormick-Lelyveld was as well. Vietor, who has been dating McCormick-Lelyveld for some time, took the opportunity to surprise her with a romantic proposal in the most romantic city in the world. He began planning early, soliciting the help of White House scheduler Alyssa Mastromonaco and First Lady Obama’s scheduler Franny Starkey. Last Friday night, he flew from Washington, DC to Paris, arriving just after 6:30am local time. He hurried to the US Embassy to shower and put on a suit. He had made an arrangement with the First Lady’s traveling aide, who called McCormick-Lelyveld, telling her that Sasha and Malia were ready to leave early, and they needed her at the Embassy residence as quickly as possible. When she arrived, she was led to a room where Vietor was waiting. After asking why he was there, McCormick-Lelyveld got the shock of a lifetime. Vietor got down on one knee and proposed, offering an engagement ring that he had bought with the help of his mother. Not surprisingly, she said yes, although, Vietor explains his idyllic proposal by saying, “When you know you’re punching out of your class, you need to go the extra mile.” Sometimes, you go all the way to Paris. The couple met when she interviewed him for a job on the 2004 Kerry campaign. He turned the job down, holding out instead for the position of deputy press secretary of Barack Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign. When they both returned to Washington after the campaigns were over, they began dating and have been together since. Friend and Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau was amazed that the plan remained secret, saying, “I’m amazed we held the embargo.” President Obama himself remarked to Favreau that Vietor had pulled off a “pretty smooth move.” The couple has not yet set a wedding date, but their engagement has made international news.
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