Eric and Elizabeth’s reporting from the streets of Denver last week led to many questions (and a few pleas). Chief among them was, “Are you guys sending anyone to St. Paul for the Republican National Convention?” Yes, then no, then yes (sort of). Yes, we planned on it (fair and balanced and all of that). Then no, because it proved too expensive (sorry, Trey). But, now, yes (sort of): Trey will have some updates from home base, and we have a man on the scene in St. Paul. He is David Schenck, partner at Jones Day and McCain Delegate. He sent the following recap via Blackberry, so it’s brief. Enjoy. And please be considerate. It’s not like Schenck blogs as his day job. (Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on the left, David Schenck on the right.)
Day 2 of the Convention
By David Schenck
I’m in a cab racing over to Minneapolis. The cabbie is asking me for directions–and I thought I was better off skipping the shuttle bus. Most of the Dallas contingent signed up for the Pro-life gathering that will be hosting Gov. Sarah Palin in our hotel in about ten minutes. I had already rsvp’d for the Aviators event and a Republicans for the Environment meeting here in St Paul hosted by Theodore Roosevelt IV. (The media were camped outside of my room and down the hallway in anticipation of Gov. Palin’s appearance.) Much as I’d like to stay here for both of the events, I really need to meet with the Dallas fundraisers I’ve gotten to know over the past year and a half.
It’s already been an eventful day for the Texas delegation. We had a visit from Mrs. McCain (Senator McCain’s 96-year old mother) who bounded up to the podium and reminded us that her mother was born in Cleburne. Mike Huckabee also spoke in praise of Gov Palin. Later, we had a series of strong speeches from Florence Shapiro, Roger Williams and Karl Rove. Rove was both funny and powerful. He moved most of us to tears with the stories he heard from John McCain’s cellmate in Vietnam (Bud Day). I’ll be back in St. Paul by 6:00 and should be on the floor by 7:00. Elizabeth Frank Jones and I have connected up with some hyper-impressive Britsh Conserative MPs and will be joining up with them this evening after the scheduled events. I’ll try to take some pictures.
