Republican Convention on Stand by

This has been a most amazing day for me. I am blogging from St. Paul Minnesota where I will be attending the Republican National Convention as the guest of Washington State delegate Luanne VanWerven.

On our flight out of Seattle was buzzing with excitement over McCain's selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as his VP candidate. This was a brilliant move on McCains part and I applaud him for a most principled and strategic move. She adds everything he needs to the ticket and will solidify and energize the base, which is exactly what is needed.

I have just posted two great article about Gov. Palin on the Washington Eagle Forum web site under Hot Topics. Check them out.

Arriving in St. Paul we got word that the convention will be significantly altered as a result of Hurricane Gustav hitting the US Southern coast tomorrow.

We first heard Louisiana Gov Bobby Jindal would not be coming to speak. While completely understandable, this was a huge personal disappointment to me as he was one of the speakers I was most excited to hear from.

Then we got word that the President, Vice President, and Laura Bush were all cancelled. This is amazing, but really shows the gravity of the situation as well as the character of leadership under pressure.

Sen. McCain very graciously stated "This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics, and we have to act as Americans. We’re going to suspend most of our convention activities tomorrow.”

Yet here in St. Paul Republican delegates were arriving from all over the US. The cities of Minneapolis/St Paul have gone out of their way to welcome us upon arrival. Even at the airport there were Republican welcome booths everywhere assisting us with information, directions and even gifts.

There was very obvious security in place. We saw officers and several canine units just on our walk to baggage claim. Oh, and we walked there with Ron Reagan, son of Pres. Ronald Reagan. He will be covering the convention for Air America.

After being credentialed we made our way to the Excel Convention Center and participated in the screening of a new movie "An American Carol", a political spoof on the classic "A Christmas Carol". A bit too hokey and irreverent for me, but the crowd enjoyed the satire at the expense of liberals and their mantra.

Jon Voight appears in the movie as the ghost of General Patton. He and several other actors screened it with us and appeared onstage afterward.

After the screening we attended a welcome reception there at the convention center which was amazing. We walked an incredible red carpet into the Civic Fest celebration. It took our breath away to see all the wonderful displays - from information on the state of Minnesota to wonderful historical and patriotic American displays.

There was live music, delicious food, and we spent the next two hours enjoying it all.

There is a transit system in place to take us to and from the convention center. We used it to get back to our hotel.

Both of us will be blogging from the convention and you will want to check out a more detailed recap of our day on her blog: Luanne VanWerven.