The Lipstick Wearing Pit Bull - RNC Day 3

It’s a big day today. Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak and her entire family, including the pregnant teen, will be there. We haven’t decided which will get more play, her speech or the pregnant teen. The first part of the day is like groundhog’s day. The delegates start filling the floor around 2 pm. Bored photographers hunt down another goofy hat or costume photo. Each day gets harder and harder to find something different.

Like previous days, the first 2-1/2 hours of the session is occupied with c-list speakers. I take my position on the perch. It’s packed tonight. They have 8 of us crammed into the top tier of the riser. Four people was pretty tight, eight is uncomfortable. With such little space, I am constantly getting bumped in the back of the head with lenses. It’s going to be a long night.

Three failed republican presidential hopefuls will be speaking tonight. Mitt Romney was the first to go. I really don’t have much to say about him, he’s just Mitt and he and Anne love all of you.

Mike “The Huckster” Huckabee went next. I loved covering Huckabee in Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s a very funny guy and always made for great pictures. Was good to wsee he’s out there. When he took the stage tonight, the giant screen behind him had a picture of a parking lot. Other people have had nice sunset vistas, a beautiful country road or a quaint American Main Street. Huck got a parking lot. Man, that’s rough. His speech was pretty bad. It was full of recycled stories from the Iowa days. He pulled out the old desk story. It totally bombed. Huck needs some new material.

Next up, Rudy G. Earlier in the day I had tried to get a betting pool going on how many times he would say 9/11 in his speech. I had no takers. Rudy was his normal arrogant self and started in on the Barack Bash almost immediately. He would belt out weird criticisms and then laugh at his own joke because nobody else was. It was bizarre. But, the most amazing thing was that he only mentioned 9/11 once or twice. I thought for sure it would be every other word. He did have to remind us a few times that he was the Mayor of New York City, just in case you had forgotten.

The catch phrase of the day was "we're winning, the surge has succeeded."

The pregnant teen and her gum chewing boyfriend were in the VIP box now. Every camera in the place was aimed towards them. He looked frightened. I would have been.
Sarah Palin hit the stage shortly after 9 pm. The crowd went nuts. She graciously waved to her fellow republicans and repeatedly said thank you. She seemed overwhelmed. I’m sure this wasn’t the size of crowd she had when she was mayor of the 9,000 person town. At one point during her speech the crowd went crazy and I saw her through my lens sort of gasp and mouth “oh wow.” She started out her speech really strong, this woman has spunk. It seemed like she knew what she was doing. Midway through the speech, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin made an appearance so she could have her daily arrest. She needs to not be so predictable.
I think a lot of people were impressed. The crowd loved her hockey mom/pit bull line with the lipstick punchline. The bashing began soon after and continued for the rest of her speech in the same joking way as Rudy. She had lots of zeal, but no substance.
At the end of her speech, McCain came out to deafening cheers. It was a really awkward moment. They both seemed confused. McCain blurted out one line, stood next to her for a minute and waved and then seemed to shrug his shoulders and say now what as he stood with his back to the audience. He then went behind her family as if to hide. Great coordination. Bizarre.