Final Convention Note

Well, the 2008 Republican National Convention was a great success, as we can see how the McCain ticket has leaped in the polls. Although they are still essentially tied, McCain is now on the top of some of those polls. Stay tuned for the debates, people. The debate schedule is as follows:

1st Presidential - September 26
Vice Presidential Debate - October 2 (don't miss this one!)
2nd Presidential - October 7
3rd Presidential - October 16

Back to the convention, here's some pictures I took with my good camera:

Pictures, starting at the top left.

1) Me at the convention
2) John McCain speaking the last night of the convention
3) All the balloons falling
4) CNN converted a pub I ate at when I went to the Excel for volunteer training; they literally took the whole place over and remodeled it entirely
5) Armed guards to fend off the protesters. There is a huge anarchist group in Minneapolis/St. Paul that slashed delegate bus tires and news van tires.
6) A huge, HUGE TV screen outside of the Fox News tent, and it was playing news and commentary outside during the convention. I checked it over, and I don't think it was made at Daktronics.
7) View of the Excel from the outside. You can see the security checkpoints right there in the middle of the picture.
8) Me and Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. I was volunteering help out at the Alaska/Tennesee delegate hotel, and in walks Bill Frist was there with the Tennessee delegation. So I took a picture with him!

GOP Convention Day 2

Well, the convention today was a much more eventful and exciting day, for the country and me, as the convention was back on after hurricane Gustav and I was able to score guest passes to the convention for today and the rest of the nights.
First off, I was working at the Alaska/Tennessee hotel assisting delegates which is where this picture comes from: (bear with me, I'll have better pictures when I can use good camera pictures and not phone pictures)














There were some local T.V. stations advertising "Minnesota Nice" and going around to various convention locations showing off Minnesota products and traditions. These Tennessee ladies were introduced to lutafisk, and it was pretty hilarious to watch their reactions.

The Alaska delegation (clearly big fans of drilling for oil in ANWR) had on hard hats sporting the "Drill here Drill Now" slogan, as well as full oil worker gear and were wearing them to the convention to make a point on energy solutions. I know new oil drilling won't increase actual supply for a few years, but oil is traded on a futures market, and the prospect of future supply will cause a drop in oil prices now, just like farm crops.















Once I finished helping delegates, I hopped on one of the convention buses and headed to the Excel Energy Center. Here's my view from the nosebleed guest section...but it was awesome! You really can't tell how huge that screen is from this picture, but it was massive and had top-quality picture...Daktronics maybe?














Yea, those are all the thousands of balloons that will be raining down on the delegates Thursday night...I'll have a video of that to post up. All in all, it was a pretty amazing experience. I ran into a few big people. I walked by Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota, talked a bit with state legislator and delegate Al Novstrup of South Dakota, and helped out the son of Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, when he and his dad forgot their credentials at a different hotel.

Probably the most moving moment was when the RNC honored the family of deceased Medal of Honor recipient Michael Monsoor, the 4th in the war on terror. This man saved his friends and comrads by diving on top of a grenade, thus protecting them. He died 30 min later. This is a picture that was a picture of President Bush that was taken during the Medal of Honor presentation ceremony, where he had tears streaming down his face:


















Regardless about what you think of the man, don't think for one second the president doesn't realize what consequences his actions have.

More to come tomorrow!

GOP Convention Day 1

Well, I'm down here at Republican convention in St. Paul, residing at a hotel in Bloomington. I figured I'd give you all some first-person perspective about what's going on. I volunteered to work down here, and my job isn't actually at the Excel Energy Center...I'm working at one of the delegate hotels...telling buses when to leave and greeting delegates. The delegations at the hotel I'm working at are the Tennessee and Alaska delegations...not normally that exciting, but with the recent pick by John McCain of Sarah Palin (Governor of Alaska) as his vice presidential running mate, suddenly my job may become much more exciting! Most likely she won't be there, but who knows?

Some exciting events for me today. I started out the day traveling to the Minneapolis Convention Center. I was invited through a contact of mine to go to the World Premier of the movie American Carol, a political parody of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol that makes fun of filmmaker (or should I say documentarian?) Michael Moore, as well as about every other group of people.
Check out the trailer for the movie here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSpu8i1ZEFw&feature=related

Right after checking in to the premier, patriotic singer Lee Greenwood kicked off a pre-show concert, where I was able to enjoy awesome America music, accompanied by free food (and beverages).

As I sat down for the movie, I chatted with the guy next to me. Turns out he is the Minnesota chairman of Young Republicans, and he is also the second cousin of the former superintendent of the high school I graduated from in North Dakota. Small world, huh?

Tomorrow (Monday) they canceled all of the extra fun stuff at the convention so everyone can focus on hurricain Gustav. Political party parties obviously go to the back burner when national emergencies take place, and kudos to everyone in charge who were able to evacuate 2 million people, which is a record evacuation. Proceedings will still take place at the GOP convention on Monday (with the rest TBA as the hurricain developes) as the Republicans have some mandatory things they have to take care of to legally exist as a party. President Bush and VP Cheney are skipping the convention to oversee things down at the Gulf.

I'm working on scoring some guest passes, so I can get an inside scoop from the convention. More to come!