Few look forward to the drudgery of a bus ride -- even if the seats are comfy and you are really excited about your destination. One way for things to get more interesting is to get re-routed to avoid danger.
Such was the case on today's trip to the Xcel Center for the morning (and today only) session of the Republican National Convention. A police officer on board our bus told us that we were being rerouted because of some protesters causing trouble. I had wondered why we were getting a tour of Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods and elementary schools.
Finally, we were on the freeway and made our arrival without incident. It was an overwhelming atmosphere at the arena, with the CNN Grill, giant Fox News screen and convention banners. This is what it must feel like to attend the Super Bowl or an NBA Finals game.
First stop was the convention floor and a swing over to the California delegation seating. The floor seats are not that great -- only a side view of the podium. I guess when your state votes Democratic in nearly every presidential election you don't get the choice seating. But if you're in a swing state, like Ohio, you score. Front row seats for the Buckeye State.
Anyone who loves politics would be awed by the scene. You are surrounded by news booths in the box seating area and are just feet from where Sen. John McCain will accept the Republican nomination. Hopefully, the speakers will not be blinded by the floor. It reflected so much from the jumbo screen that you had to wonder how many gallons of chemicals were used to shine it.
My tour was cut short, as I was promptly kicked off the floor for not having the right credentials (to his credit the Secret Service agent who asked me to leave was quite cool about it). Being an alternate, I sit in the first level of seating, which to my great fortune turns out to be better than the delegation seats. Sometimes it pays to be less important.
Finally around 3:01 p.m. I took my seat. At 3:05, the session was adjourned for an hour of committee meetings. Riveting.
That allows for a little exploration. Three celebrity sightings: Karl Rove, George Stephanopolous, and Sam Donaldson. The last two were spotted during restroom trips, which made it slightly uncool.
The convention finally got a spark with speeches from Laura Bush and Cindy McCain. They urged delegates to donate to a series of charities working to help hurricane victims.
I heard some comments today from callers to CNN Headline News complaining this was politicized. Seriously, sometimes you can't catch a break. If you ignore the hurricane, you're being insensitive. If you adjust your convention, you are politicizing it.
Fortunately, John McCain is one to follow his conscience and charge ahead. If he wasn't that way, he wouldn't have nailed the most pressing military issue of this decade: calling for the surge.
It turned out after checking the news channels today, that my delegate experience was completely different from what dominated the news today. I had time to catch Wolf Blitzer obsessing with the news that Gov. Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant.
The coverage was shameless. There is nothing gained in the public's "right to know" by splashing the details of a potential vice president's child on the news ticker. Even Barack Obama had the dignity to declare that the family should be "off-limits" when pressed by reporters. Sure, it is newsworthy to some degree, but that doesn't mean it needs to dominate the news cycle. Maybe Blitzer should work for "Entertainment Tonight." He could spend all day on Jamie Lynn Spears.
There's a big event tonight including other state delegations being sponsored by Medtronic. It got moved up and reconfigured to include fund raising because of Gustav. Which means I better bring this to a close. The bus is probably pulling into the hotel lot. Here's to hoping no protesters wreck my ride.
More later.
Derek Walter of Fresno, an alternate delegate and Fresno County chairman of the John McCain 2008 campaign, teaches third graders at Reagan Elementary School and college classes for National University. He also blogs at derekwalter.com.
September 1, 2008
“I Used To Be a Democrat!”
by Gary Schulz, Delegate (CA-21) to the 2008 Republican National Convention
When I tell my story of my political conversion to become a Republican, I receive nervous chuckles from my Democrat friends and laughter/applause from my many GOP counterparts.
I was raised in an FDR-Democrat household where the role the New Deal played in the survival of the family farm throughout the depression was revered. My mom and dad farmed 2,000 acres of wheat and barley near Reardan, Washington, about 25 miles west of Spokane. We also raised Registered Polled Shorthorns. My five siblings and I grew to become the labor force in a close knit “passionate protestant” family.
I recall my mom making light of all the golf that President Eisenhower used to play, and how she thought a great deal of 1960 Democratic presidential nominee JFK. My dad was rather quiet with his politics at that time, but generally agreed with mom although his mother, Grandma Frieda, was an avid, died-in-the-wool Republican.
In 1964, I remember overhearing, as a 10-year-old, arguments between my family and my uncle about LBJ and Goldwater. Of course, Goldwater was destined to lead our country to nuclear war, so our family supported Lyndon Johnson.
My personal political opinions started to develop around the era of the 1968 presidential election. I was a freshman in high school at the time, and enjoyed liberal as well as conservative (some very conservative) teachers at Reardan High School. This was the Nixon-Humphrey election and we were disappointed with the Nixon victory.
By 1972, I had been elected student body secretary and president, church youth group president, State FFA officer, and lettered in 3 sports. My interest in politics was peaking. I could not, however, bring myself to favor the Democrat, George McGovern, over incumbent President Richard Nixon. I strongly resisted McGovern’s proposed policy to withdraw from Viet Nam. Even though as a college freshman I attended a McGovern rally at Gonzaga University (out of pure curiosity), I supported my first Republican, Richard Nixon, even though I considered myself a Democrat. By the nature of the outcome of the election, I would say many of my Democrat colleagues also voted for Nixon!
In 1974, the Democrats instituted the mid-term convention in order to pull themselves out of the doldrums in which they found themselves after successive defeats. This would also lead to a head-start toward hoped-for victory in 1976.
My mom encouraged me in the winter of ’74 to attend our precinct caucus and to run as a delegate to the County Convention. I was one of 4 in the living room of a neighbor’s home on this cold and rainy evening and was chosen to be our precinct delegate.
At the county convention, I was chosen to be a delegate for the Washington State Democratic Convention! Held in Richland, Washington, I was impressed with the speeches of Senators Warren Magnusen and Henry “Scoop” Jackson, as well as Congressmen like our own Tom Foley. But, I was troubled by the platform and the resolutions our convention passed, many of which I voted against, like pulling out of Viet Nam, dramatically increasing welfare, and cutting defense spending.
In the ’76 election, like many Americans, I was impressed with the “change” offered by Georgia peanut farmer/ former FFA member/Baptist Sunday school teacher/Washington outsider Jimmy Carter and I loyally voted for him.
The years following the Jimmy Carter inauguration were awful! They included:
• Hostages being held in Iran,
• Runaway inflation and interest rates,
• Gasoline shortages and long lines at the pump,
• Cancelled appearances at the Olympics and cancelled grain contracts to the Soviet Union that drove our wheat prices into a downward spiral, and
• A “malaise” as inspired and described by our President.
By this time I was closely watching former California Governor Ronald Reagan. He had impressed me over the years when he addressed the 1968 Republican Convention as a favorite son candidate. I had quietly hoped he would beat Gerald Ford for the GOP nomination in 1976 following the disgraceful resignation of Richard Nixon. He “sealed the deal” and earned my support with his weekly radio broadcasts after the 1976 election called “A Minute with Ronald Reagan”.
Prior to the 1980 election, after hearing Reagan’s stirring description of America as a “shining city on a hill” with her best days yet to come, I changed my party affiliation to Republican. I was 24 years old. It was during this time that my mom and dad also converted to become Republicans!
On election-day 1980 I voted very early and was then totally preoccupied with family farming legal matters. I exited our lawyer’s office well after sunset, climbed into my 4-wheel drive pickup and headed to my home in Post Falls, Idaho on Interstate 90. At the top of the hour, the national news cut away to the Reagan campaign’s rally where former Governor Reagan would speak. Up until this time I had not heard any election news, so I pulled my pickup off onto the shoulder of the interstate to listen to the results and to hear what Reagan would say.
I learned that the national news networks had declared Ronald Reagan the winner by a convincing electoral margin, and heard him give his address. It was at this time that I gazed to the northeast where over the peak of Mount Spokane I could see the most beautiful Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights. It was as if, on cue, God himself was celebrating Ronald Reagan’s victory with his own special pyrotechnics!
I consider my votes in 1980 and 1984 for Ronald Reagan my best and proudest votes!
Thus began my many years as a conservative Reagan Republican. In 2004 I served as Tulare County (California) chairman for Bill Jones for the U. S. Senate. I served as Regional Field Director for Governor Schwarzenegger’s Victory ’06 winning program. This year I organized get-out-the vote efforts in Tulare County for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney prior to the California Primary. Because Romney won our Congressional District, I was chosen to attend the 2008 Republican National Convention as a Delegate!
I am writing this on the first evening of the convention. I plan to support John McCain as our nominee and am very excited he has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. It seems that Governor Palin was born 2 days after my 10th birthday in Sandpoint, Idaho…roughly 100 miles from my hometown in eastern Washington. Basketball was both of our favorite high school sports. We also share the commonality of graduating from Palouse land-grant universities: she from the University of Idaho and I graduated from Washington State University. The two universities are only 12 miles apart!
Like Reagan, I too believe America’s best days are still ahead. I am blessed with a fine family, many are active Republican volunteers. Our son, Kevin, is a member of the nuclear reactor crew of a ballistic missile submarine based in Georgia. His service has caused me to have a much deeper respect and gratitude for our men and women that protect and defend our liberties and freedom that we all enjoy.
I am just one Republican delegate to this year’s convention. I am probably not the only one with “former democrat” on his resume. I enjoyed my 24 years as a Democrat, but my heart belongs to the GOP!
Gary Schulz is a resident of Tulare, California
His website is www.GarySchulz.com
He can be reached at schulzgw@gmailcom
Or by calling 559-741-6025
I suppose I could relate how I recently switched from the Republican to the Democratic party. Unlike Mr. Schulz, my reasons stem from the last 8 years, rather than events that happened 30 years ago. But I'll save that for another day.