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Notes on Day Three of the GOP Convention

I don’t have any more video for you.  I’ll get it up when I have time to slice and dice it.  I’ll warn you, that my arm gets tired after holding the camera for a couple of hours, so it gets shaky.  Here are a few thoughts, in no particular order, about the events at the GOP convention today.

- At least for the people in the room, Sarah Palin nailed it.  I don’t know how it played on TV or with non-Republicans, but the room was electric.  I heard some pundit on the radio on the way to my hotel say that the crowd was tepid when she came out, but energetic after she spoke.  That’s crap.  That crowd was wild (well, as wild as Republicans get) when she came out. 

- A BIG “thank you” to the Wisconsin GOP.  They gave me a guest pass for a seat.  There are seats available for the “special press,” as we bloggers are called, but they are on the side.  The guest pass had me with almost a straight-on view of the stage, and I was in the front row.  Very cool.  Thanks, guys.  Can I get one for tomorrow

- Bob Dole came into the convention and worked his way through the crowd.  It was cool to see him being mobbed by the crowd.  He was a crappy candidate, but he’s a great man and deserves such respect.

- Speaking of Dole, a few of the delegations stood up and cheered when he came by.  Unfortunately, one time it happened when Dr. Elena Rios was rattling off statistics about how minorities have higher instances of various ailments.  Probably not the best time to be cheering…

- The speeches before the biggies were mostly very good.  It was interesting, if predictable, that there wasn’t a white guy in the bunch.  It was all women and/or minorities.  This was obviously a concerted effort to go after those demographics - not that there’s anything wrong with that.

- Scott Walker stopped by my seat to chat for about 15 minutes.  He made a great point that I know he shared with media outlets, but it bears repeating.  He said that Obama chose Biden to compensate while McCain chose Palin to compliment.  Good point. 

- Romney’s speech was well received.  At this point, it seemed like something was up with the mic.  It was too soft.  It was that way for the rest of the night.

- I didn’t tape Huckabee’s speech, because… I don’t like him.  But he gave one heck of a speech.  It was funny, entertaining, and layed some real blows.  Unfortunately, he prefaced it with saying that he had wanted the speaking slot on Thursday night, to accept the nomination.  He said it jokingly, but I thought it was tacky. 

- The speaking order got all screwed up.  I don’t know why.  But Giuliani was supposed to speak before the Governor of Hawaii (she was supposed to introduce Palin), but he spoke after her.  There was also supposed to be a video about Palin, but that wasn’t shown.  The musical act was supposed to be earlier.  Etc.  I don’t know why it got screwed up, but I’m glad they still got Palin’s speech into prime time. 

- Giuliani’s speech was great.  Spot on.  But you could tell that he was dragging on a bit too long and the crowd was getting anxious for Palin to come out. 

- As expected, security was EVERYWHERE, but they were nice and helpful.  The protesters outside were disappointing.  Nothing original.  Same old stuff.  Sean Hackbarth had some fun ridiculing the Code Pink folks because they couldn’t sing or march in step.

Posted by Owen at 0018 hrs
Politics + Politics - General + Politics - Wisconsin

1. My guess is they moved Rudy to a slot during which more people would be watching.  For good reason:  he had the attack-dog speech on Obamaamamamamama, and did a very good job of it, too.

   Posted by dad29 on September 04, 2008 at 0658 hrs
   
   
   

2. Apparently Giuliani departed quite a bit from his prepared remarks, and in doing so, absorbed the time that was allotted for Palin’s intro video. I thought it was a good attack speech, especially for the delegates in attendance, but doesn’t it strike you as odd that the mayor of New York was mocking Obama and the Democrats for being “Cosmopolitan”?

   Thanks for this post, Owen. I always love first-person posts from bloggers who are at events and able to give a different POV than you get from normal media coverage.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 04, 2008 at 1025 hrs
   
   
   

3. I got a suite pass from a friend for last night, so I headed down to the X right after work thinking it was going to be a zoo. I parked about 8 blocks away and figured that I’d have a quick, straight walk right to the X, not happening.

   The place is a fortress and I ended up walking to within about 75 yards of the X, then being told that I needed to “go around.” That involved a 20 minute walk about 2 miles out of my way.

   When I got to the block with the main gate I noticed that the whole block was being handled by Milwaukee’s Finest…

   http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3033/2827468293_0bdf3d8dac_m.jpg

   I went to the front of the gate to wait for my friend to show up. He was staying at McCain and Palin’s hotel in Minneapolis, and all the important people get shuttled around by coaches. So I was hanging at the front, and I noticed that two goofballs were holding Ron Paul signs and making idiotic comments to most the people coming in and out of the gate. I say goofballs, because they were complete “live-in-mom’s basement, never kissed a girl” types and I realize that’s not all Ron Paul followers. Anyway, these guys were annoying, but harmless and not loud at all. Apparently, I just missed Ron Paul’s impromptu speech right there 10 minutes before.

   I decided to put a security code onto my iPhone in case it got stolen. Just as I finish setting that up, Dennis Miller walks out and is heckled by the Paulites. I’m 10 feet away and he’s walking towards me after shaking his head at the Paulites. I said Hi Dennis, he said Hi back and I ended up getting a pic of his back.

   Then a biker guy and his friend show up and they start in with a performance of the guy using every Republican stereotype in the book and his girlfriend recording the whole thing for what I assume to be antiwar.com (they had those pins on). My friend is running late, so I get stuck listening to his performance deal for nearly 20 minutes. In a nutshell it was:

   God damn. I sure do love my money. I hate those damn A Rabs and those stinky Persians. They don’t speak A Merican and worship Jesus Christ. We should kill more Iraqis than the 1.2 million we already killed. God Damn!

   Over and over and over. Nobody did anything but smirk at the guy.

   While this was going on and few other notables walked by. I was standing right between the FoxNews tent and the bar that a lot of the media types run over to. Megyn Kelly from Fox walked by a few times. Don’t get me wrong, she’s beautiful, but she looked pretty plastic up close.

   My friend finally shows up, and we head through security. Security wasn’t much more than a metal detector. We head inside the X and find my suite and then start wandering around. The suite level was full of BIG donors and Senators. I met a few and I was in the suite seemingly hosted by Meg Whitman. Elizabeth Hasselbeck was a suite over, and she’s 100 times better looking in person.

   We went just about everywhere and I saw too many Senators and “famous” politicians to list. Although I did get a pic taken with Stephen Baldwin, and he asked that I pimp his radio show. I would put the link here, but Blog Talk Radio is “blacklisted” on this site, so google it.

   I had a suite pass, and my friend had all access. He suggested that we hang in the suite for a bit, then swap passes so I could go down to the floor which is only for delegates and people like my friend. So I head down there, and it’s pretty cool being among the delegates. I figured I’d walk over to the main stage and come out the other end of the floor. There’s nothing going on right now, and I haven’t checked a speaking schedule at all. I get within about 10 feet of the stage and I hear, “Please welcome former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee!” Everyone sits down and I’m standing there with a bunch of photographers. I slink out of there the best I can, no harm done!

   I head back upstairs to the suite and it’s loaded with food and drinks and all kinds. We have our own bartender. It was a older crowd in my suite, with A LOT of pull and money. I have no clue how I got 1 loan pass into this suite, but I shook hands with Orson Swindle. The atmosphere for Romney’s speech was one of mild interest. Nobody really felt the need to stop their conversations much. Then it got real quiet for Rudy. Rudy was a big hit with everyone.

   The place went nuts when Palin came out. Her speech started a bit slow maybe, but the women in the crowd around me where HUGE fans, guys too. I really get the impression that Palin is someone that the donors will be thrilled with for years to come. I grabbed a free hat and umbrella on the way out the door.

   I’ll be back tonight sitting in the lower level.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 04, 2008 at 1404 hrs
   
   
   

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