01 September 2008

Convention Day 1: George Washington gets us kicked off


South Carolina's delegation breakfast got off to a rousing start today with the actor who played George Washington in the History Channels "The Revolution". After giving us some historical perspective on the importance of prayer, General Washington led us in a prayer of his own (taken from his diary.)



After that, we got our marching orders for the day (get your badges, make the bus, don't forget the milk and cookies party...) and an update on the electoral landscape from Whit Ayres (who agrees with the importance of the Palin pick.)

Mostly just business today while we watch. Everyone is palpably relieved that Gustav seems to have spared New Orleans. At the same time, Don Fowler has clearly put his foot in it with his over the top rhetoric about God sending hurricanes to stop the convention. Favorite unintentional admission of the morning: Howard Wolfson on Fox News "Sometimes we say things we don't mean." Yep - that's one of the differences between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats often say things they don't mean - thanks for admitting it.

The energy surrounding this campaign is overwhelmingly positive since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the running mate. The base is energized and motivated in a way we weren't just a week ago. The polling from Rasmussen and Zogby shows McCain/Palin leading (in basically a statistical tie) with Obama/Biden, and that's after their convention and before ours - unheard of. As long as we can get in three solid days of message (Tuesday through Thursday after the cancellation of political speeches tonight due to Gustav) we should see a modest bounce on top of that, and go into the final two month stretch with a lead...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

In one of your earlier posts about Palin you commented that you had been unsure about your vote until McCain selected Palin and now you were on board. So does that mean you were considering not voting for McCain and voting for Obama instead? It's hard to imagine you would have voted for anything but the Republican ticket even if weren't completely on board with McCain, correct?

Anonymous said...

Josh--
You were right in yesterday's post about the need for Vision-Casting tonight. A missed opportunity. Overdefensiveness after all the Katrina flap now makes us run from bad perceptions. And it turns out to be a Cat 1.

But it's great to see you next to Washington. Who knows, maybe the actor will someday say, "I got my picture taken with Joshua Gross"!

Anonymous said...

As a conservative Josh I agree with your hesitancy initially with a McCain vote. We value our votes. Never (!!!) in a gazillion years would the alternative have been a vote for the "O". I had considered a non-vote as a means of protest. Palin changed that for me. And by choosing her as a running mate, McCain proved that he does care about the conservative base of the party and the platform we represent. Have fun there Joshua. It looks like you are hanging with the right people and they with you! from sturdywoman

Anonymous said...

this is really the same person just trick photo

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work.