Politics and Petunias

Getting people back to work by creating new jobs is PRIORITY.

Romney can cross the aisle and it’s what has to be done in a new administration.  Romney says he can take that torch and lead us, his comments, debate style and strength truly came across.

Sequestration, that’s the across the board spending cuts, ‘will not happen…’ heard the words but never heard the “how” part.  The president made statements but never backed them up with a plan for us to hear about and consider. It is such an amorphous concept you just can’t leave it dangling with an equally amorphous statement like that.

It doesn’t appear that this debate is in the “draw” category like in the last one.  Independents are still the key in how well the candidates did in the debate tonight.

Polling:

Which candidate would better handle US policy in China?

ANSWER:   50/50, ROMNEY/OBAMA

WHO DO YOU THINK PASSED THE BATTLEGROUND STATE MARK?  

After this evening, what political strategists want to know is, how much of an uptick in numbers exists in states like Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania, as a result of this evening’s debate?  State tuned, the numbers are still coming in…

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Interview with State Treasurer, Diana Irey Vaughn

What a great weekend it will be in Gettysburg for Republican women from throughout the Commonwealth!  I can’t wait to meet everyone and catch up with old friends as we convene for the 90th Anniversary!  I am speaking on Saturday and finishing up with a little surprise fun!

Always wonderful to share ideas and hear about a successful strategy!

Let’s make PENNSYLVANIA RED together!

For the first day of the Convention which was Tuesday, because of the hurricane blowing our scheduled event off the calendar for a day, it was a lot of moving around and gathering our bearings in the Tampa Bay Forum.

The Pennsylvania Delegation on the main floor of the Forum was strategically placed in front of the podium, behind two other states.  For Pennsylvania, we were thrilled. State position is everything and I’m sure there was a lot of jockeying chairs around in the weeks leading up to the big day.  I don’t know who is on that committee but I’d love to be a fly on the wall when all the lobbying begins about where each state gets seated!  I can just hear the argument from the first 13 states of our Union, we are the most important! Without us, there wouldn’t be a United States!  Our colonists started it all and so we should be up front, close to the stage!

Well, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t go like that.  As the public learns quickly, the states in play and at the top of the heap get the most attention.  They are forever known as swing states because they can swing an election, either way.  Hopefully, as the candidate, that swing state will sway enough in your direction and the votes will start tallying up in your favor.   In states like Pennsylvania, with Philadelphia to the east and Pittsburgh to the west, and a mini-metropolitan area of Lehigh to the north, the population varies as wide a a pendulum swings.

Consequently, other states like Florida and Ohio, also swing states, are noticeably nearby.  If you knew someone in either of those states who was a delegate, it was pretty easy to walk over, find them and have a friendly political chat.  But if your old pal you grew up with was a delegate who had moved to let’s say, Wyoming or Colorado, well, you had to fight the crowd of people and almost 10,000 press on the floor to get to them.  They were far off to the side or toward the back of the Forum.  Interestingly, you might have by then figured out that Michigan was right up front.  So far up front that the cameras would catch your every glance or expression.  Depending where the speaker was from, that state got a nice shout out and 15 seconds of fame and camera attention.

Michigan.  That delegation was really up front because it’s Mitt’s home state.

Wisconsin.  While not terribly far geographically if you were to drive it, it was even closer if you were to walk it…on the convention floor.  It’s Paul Ryan’s home state.  They weren’t in any corner either.

Hawaii was in a far corner but by Thursday I bet they were thrilled.

They were at the entrance Governor Romney used to enter the arena on nomination night.

Location, location, location.

Here we are, now about to have our last day of the Republican National Convention and I’m wondering where it all went.  The grueling schedule will continue tomorrow but as important as every single little thing was on Monday morning, it is now waning as the delegation is super charged and, super tired.

Thursday’s breakfast begins with a visit and speech by Rick Santorum, a former presidential candidate who maintains a certain level of popularity throughout America among the Pro-Life set.  He released his candidates to the convention just last week, sitting on them like a mother hen.  He could have released them the day he pulled out of the race, or even within a week but chose to release them mere days prior to the convention.

Santorum was followed or lead by a detail of security and plenty of colleges students, occasionally stopping for a photo.

Still, the most anticipated moment of the evening was when Paul Ryan came out.  Before that, Condoleeza  Rice was in the house and riled up even the quietists of Delegates!

Condoleeza Rice really added an incredible dimension to the whole week—what it is to be decisive and have a strong world order.  While our individual thoughts are grassroots and local, it reminds us that it is also connected on a much grander scale.

We all need to do our part in our own communities and make it a better place, politically or otherwise.

We had a great breakfast this morning, hosted by my dear old friend, Vice Chair, Renee Amoore.  She pulled out all the stops and didn’t even tell me, a trusted girlfriend about the line up! Holy Cow!  She took the doors off!

First, the Governor spoke and the room was full of dignitaries and legislators.  Then, out of the blue, I see about four secret service fellows.  Boy are they obvious. You know they are serious as a heart attack but, they do have a serious job.  Hmmm, somebody important, we were all wondering.  Then from behind the stage emerges Speaker John Boehner!  That’s pretty impressive, really.  He was great and energetic, too.  What you see on tv is so different than in person.

We thought the breakfast was winding down when a handsome, dark-haired young man took the podium.  It wasn’t Marco Rubio but a similar look…

Josh Romney!!  Wow!  We were thrilled.  What a warm and caring speech about how he was looking forward to seeing his mother on the big stage this evening.  It will be a proud moment and those boys won’t have a dry eye!