I am excited and honored to be among the 137 Delegates and Alternates representing North Carolina at the Republican National Convention.

 

I arrived in Minneapolis on Friday, August 30th and have been attending various meetings since then.

 Minneapolis and St. Paul are both beautiful cities. Both seem to effortless blend beautiful historic buildings with modern high rises. I have been really impressed. Something that I have never seen before is that, in downtown Minneapolis, each building is connected on the 2nd floor skywalk. The skywalk is there because during the winter, this is the coldest city in America. There are many days when the wind chill factor is -25 degrees below zero. It is really interesting to see that the older buildings have older sky walks and the new buildings have newer sky walks. I have just never seen such an intricate system of pedestrian traffic.

 

The Convention itself began in a very muted fashion as all of us held our breath and said our prayers for our neighbors along the Gulf Coast. Now, as hurricanes seem to be bearing down on our on coast, I understand even more the feeling of helplessness that all the folks along the Gulf had to be feeling.

 

One of the more impressive events prepared for us is called “Civic Fest” and is held in downtown Minneapolis. This event offers many interesting displays and I learned quite a lot of history in the four hours I spent there. Some of the more noteworthy displays include a collection of US flags dating back to the 1700’s. While I knew that the US flag had different “numbers” of stars on the flags-I never knew we actually had different designs for the stars. For example, when West Virginia succeeded from Virginia during the Civil War, Congress added their star much larger and in the center of the blue background. In fact, it was only in the early 1900’s that our current flag designed was standardized by Congress.

 

I was also amazed by a small replica of the White House Rose Garden. It actually has real roses. They smell as sweet and look as beautiful as any flowers I have ever seen. It is so impressive that the planners used real roses.

A “scale” model of the White House allows attendees to see the inside of each room in vivid detail. It is possible to really get the feel that the building serves as both a home, working office, and museum. It is certainly the closest most of us will ever get to an “all access” tour of the White House. 

 

I was also overwhelmed by the Abraham Lincoln Display. Not only did they have various actual items used by President Lincoln, they had an incredibly moving “Four Minute History of the Civil War” that showed battle by battle the number of people that died during this struggle.

I am embarrassed to say that I had forgotten that more than 1 million

people died.   It also showed the ever changing boundaries of the

Conferederate State and the United States and how each battle literally moved the boundaries.

 

I am here, of course, because Political Conventions are important to the electoral process. They allow the political parties and their candidates the opportunity to define themselves and explain their ideas to the voters.

 

In contrast to hard hitting, 30 second sound bites, the press coverage, especially the live television broadcasts, Conventions allow the public the opportunity to have a more open and unscreened opportunity to hear the candidates and the supporters of those candidates and decide for themselves whom they most trust and want to support. 

 

It is also an important opportunity to network with other Party leaders by sharing experiences and planning strategy.

 

Finally, political conventions are important tools to charge up your political base and motivate your activist to work hard in electing your candidates in the coming election.

 

On Wednesday night, Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, Governor Mitt Romney and Governor Mike Huckabee gave rousing speeches. I was proud of their commitment and how each carried themselves. 

 

Of course, the star of the evening was Governor Sarah Palin.

I think the stakes cold not have been higher for her in her introduction to the nation. I thought she handled the pressure with great poise and delivered one of the best speeches I have ever heard. The excitement among the crowd at this historic moment was impossible to hide. She did a superb job of showing why Sen. McCain had the experience to lead, began outlining what the McCain-Palin goals would be after election and had just enough humor to keep the atmosphere very light and happy. I am very proud of her.

 

Tonight, of course, is the big night with Sen. McCain making his acceptance speech.

 

The Convention Speakers have done a good job explaining his qualifications and I think that no one would question his lifetime of service and sacrifice to our Country. From enduring torture in an enemy POW camp to fighting for his convictions from more than twenty years in the US Senate, he has certainly answered the call of duty time and time again.

 

Tonight the stakes are high, though. Sen. McCain needs to lay out a clear message that he understands that American families are hurting from these terribly high gas prices and that we must do everything possible to increase supply of oil, clean coal, and natural gas and continue to develop alternative energies including nuclear and wind power. It is ridiculous that China, India, Russia and France will each together bring more than 40 nuclear plants on line in the next two years and the US allows politics to keep us lagging behind.

 

He also must let the people know that he is for opportunity to better oneself and reap the rewards of hard work. He must make sure that the American people understand the process in Washington is broken and that he will end the perversion of the process such as Congressional Earmarking because that is why spending is out of control. Taxes and debt in the country are too high and too complicated. Both need immediate attention.

 

The theme of tonight’s Session is “Peace.” Like every other American, Sen. McCain must make clear that we have investing too much in American lives to achieve anything short of victory in Iraq and Afghanistan. He must maintain American interest by stopping the spread of nuclear weapons to Iran and develop and deploy a missile defense system to protect us from attack. He must also address the ever growing economic and other overlapping issues we have with China.

 

McCain must also promote religious freedom, combat human trafficking, and protect the rights of all people.

 

Radical Islamic fanaticism is the single greatest threat to the American way of life and the lives of all free people. He must make clear that our military, police and other emergency responders and investigative agencies have the tools they need to keep us safe.

 

I am really excited to hear him speak and optimistic that he will justify to the American People why he should be our next President.