Zachary Earl Smith

The morning was fairly uneventful, but I spent quite a bit of time helping out at the volunteer center making care packages for hurricane victims. It was hard work but good. I really enjoyed the work, and it felt good knowing I could help my fellow Americans. Plus there wasn’t anything else going on so I was glad to be of use and productive rather than aimlessly wandering around the city.

Getting to the convention was a bit of a challenge as our bus driver was a bit of a space cadet, narrowly missing vehicles so often one had to stop looking out the windows because it was just too intense. He also managed to get us lost, at that point our security officer on the bus was getting very upset (each bus has its own police officer), a nice young guy from Fargo, North Dakota. He and I spoke for a bit and came to the conclusion he should intervene, so he called in a police motorcycle escort to come find us and get us back on track to the convention. It was really neat to have our own escort, particularly watching people’s faces on the sidewalk looking at our bus. You could tell they were looking to see if we were someone famous. It was really funny so we waved to them. Good times.

Republican Minority Leader Joshua Tardy was kind enough to let me borrow his credentials for a good chunk of the evening. The timing was great as I was able to get down to the floor in time to hear Michael Steele speak, one of my personal favorites. I was also able to watch Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and most of the Giuliani speech from the floor. They truly all gave excellent speeches each one of them, and just yet another great experience.

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska gave one of the best most inspiring speeches I have heard in my life. She really hit a home run and demonstrated that not only will she hold her own against Sen. Biden in the debates, but could go head to head against Sen. Obama himself. She certainly has more executive experience than Obama, and after tonight has more than proven she has what it takes to lead our nation as its next Vice President. Watch out Senator Biden, for you are about to get schooled; at any rate I look forward to watching that debate. WOW. I can’t begin to express how fired up I am that Sarah Palin is the Republican nominee, and one thing I know for sure is that I will publicly advocate for McCain Palin. I don’t care if it may not be the wisest thing for my campaign, because I truly believe our country will be best served in their hands, and if anything this convention has done is to inspire me to put country first. The one thing I know I can do for my country other than run for office is to help elect McCain and Palin, even if it costs me my election I can live with that if it means they win the White House. That said what I have been truly inspired to do is win, that I have a duty to work hard and win my campaign to serve the people of Maine in the best way I can.

Seeing McCain make a surprise visit was fun and I can’t wait to hear him speak, look forward to it.

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