When did you notice, oh, my God, my good buddy Barry is moving ahead in the world? Do you remember hearing things over the years that sort of impressed you and surprised you? …

You know, I had lost touch with Barry, and then one day about five years ago I had heard that he had become active in politics, had become a senator, and did well in the college part of that, getting his law degree. He had that intelligence. And so I was surprised, but then at the end I was like, not surprised at all.

And then I heard something about his name and “presidential” being lumped in the same sentence, and I caught myself, and I was a little amazed, surprised, confused. And then as I read more and I got on the Internet and I did a little bit more Googling, and you’re kidding, Barry wants to be president? How can this be? He was one of us! How does this happen? (Laughs.)

To this day, I don’t think it’s hit me. Every time that I walk by the TV and see Barry on there, I don’t know that I’ve connected with that yet. It just seems so surreal. And I mean that in a good way.

In some aspects, one of his favorite words in high school was “veto,” which is why you’ll see in one of the pictures that some of us going like this or like this, which could be saying peace, but in our Choom Gang, it was “veto.” We loved to get on someone who had an idea: “Hey, let’s cut class and go to the beach.” “Veto, I’ve got a test tomorrow.” Barry was using that word freely at the time. …

So did I see this coming? Not really. But now that I’ve seen him, I’m starting to realize he really is our president, and this is not a dream. But it’s still surreal, very surreal. …