Zachary Earl Smith

My overall experience of the Republican National Convention was just absolutely wonderful. It truly was an amazing experience and one I will never forget. I was just blown away by both Gov. Palin’s and Sen. John McCain’s speeches, they were truly inspiring. McCain, I believe, was absolutely right in calling Republicans out on our failure in Washington, like he said, “We went to change Washington and we let Washington change us.” Very true indeed, as we truly failed not only ourselves but the American people to whom we had promised so much. I believe still to this day that the Republican electoral slaughter in 2006 had more to do with our abandonment of Republican principles, rather than the Iraq war. In a few short sentences McCain admitted our failure to the American people but then redeemed us, and set a new course to return us to our principles and restore confidence in our leadership. It was one of the truly great speeches and I was sincerely moved. McCain literally embodies the concept of straight talk, even to his own party on our own failings. How can you not respect that, because true change or reform can only happen when you first admit you’ve made a mistake. After you get over the hurdle of admitting you went wrong, which takes a lot of courage, then you can achieve what needs to happen to fix it. Admitting a mistake is something most politicians have a phobia of, and why most Government doesn’t work as well as it should. The fear of admitting failure is so powerful that most would rather let the problem get worse rather than be bold and take responsibility and do what is necessary to solve the problem. I think Washington is going to be a very different place after a few years of McCain Palin, and I believe the People’s confidence in their government will be greatly restored.

If I can, I intend to attend every National Convention till the day I die. The people you meet and the things you see are just amazing. You go from only seeing stuff on the news, a place that doesn’t ever quite seem real and then all of sudden you’re there and in the middle of it. It becomes real in front of your eyes, and you can see and touch the people and things that had only existed before on your TV screen. After that your whole perspective changes, and I believe for the better. I truly cherish this experience and hope that other young people will have the same opportunity to experience and be a part of this in the future. I want to thank so many who helped make this a really great experience.

I am typing this on the plane back to Maine at an altitude of 35,000 feet, just something about that that still gets me giddy like a little kid. Will arrive in Bangor on time and then I’ll have the pleasure of driving back up to Presque Isle, hopefully will roll into my bed before 3am. Will sleep in I think. I will do a convention highlights blog here in a couple of days, will post more pictures and video along with other stories that didn’t make into my daily updates. One thing I should have done was started a celebrity sighting tracker as I met so many famous actors, politicians, celebrities, just random personalities that help shape our world or how we see it - was a real treat. Even on the way back while waiting for my connecting flight in Detroit I saw Tony Shalhoub, just gotta love Monk. It was a brief encounter but still what a great way to end the week, but also a great illustration of my overall experience.

Any now we’ve run into some really rough turbulence so I think I’ll wrap up this wrap-up, but will have plenty more to post later and as of Monday its back to the campaign trail.

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