Action on the floor, and Palin's speech
Convention Day 3 – There was so much action on the convention floor this evening. Upon arrival, I switched credentials with my alternate, Kelly Schultz from Frederick. I wanted to make sure that I was back in my seat for the speech by Michael Steele. That didn’t happen. While in the alternate section, the McCain floor leader began handing us large handmade political signs and stated there were a few Presidential candidate Ron Paul people in the area who they suspected were going to try to disrupt some of the speeches. That didn’t happen. Still, we were instructed by the young man in the yellow baseball cap to raise the signs to block any attempt made to show signs for Ron Paul. We did an awesome job. Rockin’ and rollin’ as the music blared and waving signs for nearly an hour before the protester revealed herself as she raised the unorthodox sign toward the TV camera. The sign was then confiscated – just as Steele was taking the stage.
In Steele-like tradition, he brought the crowd to their feet. Maryland draped the state flag over the railing. The delegates from the floor began a “call and response” chant with “Michael” as the alternates overhead responded with “Steele.” We were all so proud to have our former lieutenant governor light up the opposition as he addressed such issues as energy and drilling, to which the chant “drill, baby, drill” began.
Back at my seat with the delegates, I again get a handshake with Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch – at age 74, the man looks fabulous. Joe Scarborough from Fox News came by and had a seat with the Maryland delegation – he seemed to just want to have a friendly chat. Or maybe he was trying to get to one of the Kansas delegates just in front of us. At any rate, I talked to him, shook his hand and got a picture. Which reminds me – before getting to the convention floor, I had an opportunity to meet with Jon Voight and also get a photo.
Anticipation was so high it reached the thousands of balloons wrapped tightly in the ceiling of the Xcel Center while waiting for Sarah Palin to address the convention. Jim Pelura, chair of the Maryland GOP, and Larry Helminiak discussed if she would meet the prime time deadline. Of course, the governor of Alaska hit the homerun as she attacked the opposition by contrasting her experience: “A small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.” Her speech showed that this hockey mom has a command of the issues and can be a governing partner to Sen. McCain. She resonated with mainstream America who value sense of community, faith and freedoms. Showing she is not afraid of challenging the status quo, she came across as a no-nonsense, formidable candidate for vice president of the free world. At the end of her speech, Helminiak turned to me and stated, “I’m glad I’m not a moose.”
--Carmen Amedori
Oops: This blog post earlier gave the wrong age for Orrin Hatch. Sorry!
Carmen Amedori, 52, is a resident of Westminster and was a state delegate representing Carroll County from 1998 to 2004, when she was appointed by then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to serve on the Maryland Parole Commission. A native of Baltimore and graduate of Villa Julie College, Amedori worked as a paralegal and journalist while raising two daughters, before entering the world of politics. She was one of the few elected officials in Maryland who supported John McCain when he ran for president in 2000, and was an alternate delegate at that year's convention. Her backing has not wavered, and this year, Amedori is the Western Maryland regional director for McCain. She has also been cleared to be a surrogate — meaning she has the blessing to speak on McCain’s behalf when called upon.
Cheryl Miller, 55, and her husband, Michael, coordinate the Volunteers for Obama office in Anne Arundel County. She is an Annapolis resident and mother of two who runs a home-based event planning business. Despite studying political science at Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, Miller was not particularly involved in politics until this year. She was invited to a fund-raiser last fall, and soon found herself immersed in the Obama campaign, working phone banks and traveling to Ohio and Pennsylvania to door-knock. This will be her first convention.
Comments
Carmen;
Wednesday night Cathy and I went to the brew-pub in Gaithersburg where the Republican committee was having a convention night party and fund raiser. We were ready to visit with some people and hear the speaches. Unfortunately, the place had about a dozen video monitors and one big screen with about six different program sources on them (Fox, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc.) I convinced them to switch some of them to PBS which carried the speeches with very little commentary and no commercials. Unfortunately the main audio in the place was one of the other channels or very loud rock music. I had to "Read" the Michael Steel speech on a set that had closed captioning running. The noise was getting worse and the staff was getting agitated that the patrons actually wanted to listen to political speeches, so we left. The TV remote van was still out back.
We went home and watched the remaining speeches in HDTV and good sound (thanks to "engineer" Bob). Then we switched to ch 5 FOX news and saw the reporter interviewing some of the folks in the Gaithersburg Brew Pub. Nominal...
Jumping ahead 24 hours, Thursday night during the McCain speech the cameras were doing 1 or 2 second flash views of close-up shots from the floor. Just long enough to see the scene had changed but not long enough to know what you were seeing or enjoy it. SLOW DOWN, just because you have 50 cameras around the place doesn't mean you have to use them all each minute.
Oh Yea, We did see about one second of you (I think). At least Cathy said it was you.
Call when you get back about WOT September 13 and later.
Burtonsville Bob
Posted by: Bob Culver | September 5, 2008 10:33 AM