Hi all! This is going to be a blog where I record my impressions of the events, with some personal info about my own experiences. If that gets boring, skip those parts! I apologize in advance. I will update as quickly as possible! -Kevin
Saturday Night 7/17
Left about 8pm. Kinda dreading going - don’t really know why. I guess because I don’t really know what to expect.
- Got on flight. First time in a million years I get an exit row seat. Except I sit next to Man Mountain Mike (very big guy) for whom it is impossible to contain him in his seat. I spent the flight halfway in the aisle with the carts banging into my shoulder constantly.
- San Francisco went well. Loading group 5, which means there is no space available for my very small bag. I opened one of the overhead bins, putting one of the stews into Homeland Security mode, but I squished my bag in before she could lumber down through the mass of humanity. She seemed pleased when I closed it up successfully.
Sunday 7/17
- 430am in Chicago was totally busy. Hung out with a delegate from Chicago, Aaron Del Mar, who tells me how things work out there. Very political as to who gets to be a delegate Gotta know people and wheel and deal. More strenuous than my hastily put-together campaign. He’s the one who informs me that hotel location and floor seating at the convention are based on how well the party (and the Trump campaign) likes you and how important and loyal your state has been to the party. Needless to say, Oregon is stuck out in Akron at a Doubletree, while Texas and New York (because of Trump) are in primo locations.
- Met up with the man running for US Senate from Oregon - Mark Callahan - a really good guy. He was just engaged. Congrats! I will donate to his campaign. He got me a ride into the hotel from the national committeewoman Marylin Shannon. Things looking good. Police stationed at all delegation hotels. Got into the room early and TV’d and napped. Of course all of the delegates were greeting and shaking hands with police in sympathy with the New Orleans ambush.
- Met up at 2pm with everyone in the delegation and got the rules and the word that we are heading out to a welcome party put on by the city of Cleveland (which I now love). It was awesome! The people are all friendly (cool, considering it’s a total liberal hotbed and we were all wearing gaudy American flag attire and Trump regalia). We got bussed in luxury buses over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the Cleveland waterfront. They closed off highways and the whole area in a security perimeter. We had the whole place to ourselves and they must have had 150 food trucks from all the best restaurants in Cleveland (which are great, BTW) and free drinks for all. Free admission to the Science Museum and the R&R Hall. Bands playing great music on the waterfront. Three Dog Night replaced the Doobies (which was too bad) but the sunset was beautiful and reflected off the downtown skyscrapers. It was really beautiful. Ended with a great fireworks show (WIDA (that’s with all due respect, for the technophobes among you) better than Medford’s). I got interviewed by a local radio station guy, who was wondering what we thought of Cleveland. TJ from Portland and I gushed about the friendly people and the great city and the guy was all smiles. Cleveland loves us. Cops love us. All good. Got home by like midnight and went to bed.
Monday 7/18 - Day One of the Convention.
- 8am breakfast and briefing, including security briefing. Got a table with a some delegates from up north. There is a huge dearth of southern Oregonians. Only two from Jackson County and a smattering from Josephine. Two guys already pounding whiskey and orange juice. We got our credentials and were told to not wear them outside of security, as protesters would snatch them from you if they could, so they could “infiltrate.” We were then given a swag bag of clear plastic which would be the only bag allowed into the security perimeter. The Trump campaign gave us a whole bunch of swag also. Anything you bring in must be in the clear bag. We jumped on buses to the convention at the Q - the Quicken Loans Arena where the Cavs play. The security is heavy - Secret Service, snipers on rooftops, Homeland Security, but they are all super courteous and like I said, it’s a love-fest. Doubt if it’ll be the same for the Democrats in Philly next week.
- Boarded buses at 11. Session began at 1pm. Lots of business stuff in the afternoon. About fifteen consecutive speeches from party and local officials welcoming us, and then various political representatives. Lots of excitement in the air. Then came the committee reports. Some diehards still trying to dump Trump were outmaneuvered by Roberts Rules and the convention went on. The media jumped on that immediately to tell a story of Republican discord.
- Gotta talk about Texas. I am so envious I’m not from Texas. They had gaudy Texas-flag shirts and matching cowboy hats donated from some donor. All wearing sparkly cowboy boots and whooping it up waving their hats in the air every time someone said pretty much anything pro-America or pro-Republican. Texas has not elected a statewide Democrat in any position since 1992. They’re pretty Republican and not quiet about it. I was gonna go down to them and scream “Remember the Alamo” but I figured they’d get so worked up there’d be heart attacks involved.
- We broke for dinner and I snuck into some event at the Ohio Young Christian Coalition for energy reform or something at the Hard Rock Cafe. Lots of great food again and some really good speakers. The general theme of every event is the importance of keeping Crooked Hillary far away from the reins of power.
- Gave an interview to KDRV 12. They seemed disappointed I didn’t have any dirt to dish. The theme was ‘Make America Safe Again,” so several more speeches from the likes of Duck Dynasty guy Willie Robertson, former Texas governor Rick Perry, heroes from Benghazi and Lone Survivor SEAL Marcus Luttrel, Chachi from Happy Days (huh?). Then followed three parents of victims of illegal immigrant crime. Pretty powerful. Then came several Republican officials to warm up the crowd for Rudy Giuliani and Melania Trump.
- Trump himself shows up to introduce Melania, who did a great job. That should probably have ended the night. At least half of the crowd headed for the exits and were being pretty rude to the last speakers of the night, who, admittedly droned on about stuff we'd already heard about all night.
- Found out back at the hotel that Melania’s speech plagiarized 24 words from Michelle Obama’s speech. That was the whole story according to Chris Matthews and CNN. It’s really sadly amazing to see the spin these guys put on what was a great event with lots of substance. As a meme I saw pointed out, what’s more important - 24 words from a possible first lady or 30,000 emails from a candidate?
Tuesday, 7/19
- 8am - Greg Walden sponsored a breakfast and spoke eloquently on the state of the party. We are very lucky to have him in Congress. A really level-headed and nice guy.
- Convention started with the roll call of the states on the nomination. California and New York and Texas were the most animated, but Oregon represented well. Each state brags about what makes it really important. Some have a harder time than others. Connecticut reminded us that they were the home of Pez.
- Guess what? Trump won! Alaskans weren’t happy that their Kasich votes went to Trump (by the rules) and they demanded a poll of their delegates to waste time. Colorado was also pretty disgruntled. Many of their delegation were wearing “Never Trump” attire (all in black). But who really cares about either of those malcontent states when we’re trying to keep “Hil-LIAR-y” out of the Oval Office?
- Lots of speeches after that. Today’s theme was “Make America Work Again,” which effectively meant “rile up the crowd about Hillary’s incompetence, disloyalty, carelessness, etc. Chants of “Lock Her Up” were very popular. Paul Ryan, Donald Trump Jr and Chris Christie (especially) made great speeches well-received by the delegations. Ben Carson also had a great day linking Hillary with her mentor and devil-worshiper Saul Alinsky. It was pretty much a yuge condemnation of Hillary. I was also impressed with Tiffany Trump, who really showed poise in her speech for a youngster in her first big speech. Actress Kimberlin Brown also spoke really well. Final benediction given by the founder of “American Muslims for Trump.” Um...if you’re wondering...not a lot of members. Look it up.
- And home we go. More tomorrow!
