Minnesota event: It was a thrill!

I went to yesterday’s book signing at the Mall of America in Minnesota.

We had a great time! We only get about 5-15 seconds to speak with the Governor; still, it was truly an event I will remember for a long time.

Not only was speaking with the Governor a thrill, but the entire experience was incredible.

Let me start first by telling you about my experience with the Governor. My pictures did not turn out well, but there are better pictures all over the internet. The following picture really captures the experience.



When I finally made it to the front of the line, I waited for a few moments as my friend and her six year old daughter spoke for a moment. She asked my little friend Elinor what her name was, how old she was and what grade she was in and so on. She then turned to my friend and thanked her for bringing her daughter. Elinor literally floated out of there. Elinor said, "She talked to me for a long time!".

My turn. What you see in the picture is precisely what happened. The Governor leans towards you and clasps your hand as if you are a friend she has not seen for a while. She asked me my name and I told her and added that I was with C4P.

The brightest grin came over her face. “I love that website!” I then handed her a bumper sticker and one of my business cards. She and Todd both laughed at the bumper sticker and said “This is great”. The bumper sticker said “Hot Chicks vote Republican”.

She then glanced at my business card and said “Hey you are on the city council, so was I. Keep it up.” As I turned towards Todd, the Governor set her pen down and reached to shake my hand again with her right hand. She said, “You guys are doing great work at the website. Thank you so much and keep it going”. I told her that we will.

Like little Elinor, I floated away from the table myself. I was happy that I was not as tongue-tied as I was the first time I met her, shortly after she was nominated.

As exciting as it was to meet the Governor, I was equally as excited hanging in line and meeting the wonderful people surrounding me. Supporters of Governor Palin are wonderful and unique people. Hanging out in line for an hour and half when the wind chill is below zero, you find yourself clustering together for warmth and you get to know the people around you pretty quickly. We were in line for about seven hours. The first hour and half was in the bitter cold 5:00am before they lead us in the doors.

I met a woman named Diane and her friends, also from Wisconsin. As I stood in line chatting up C4P, she heard me and said that she read our site. Diane had her video camera with her and took lots of footage. Last night Diane emailed me one of her videos and a link to the others. Here is the link. It is great to meet people from the other side of Wisconsin. We are on the same political team and we are looking to replace a very liberal governor. See Diane's videos, TrempGOP.

I also had the opportunity to meet these three special people. Rachel, Jeff and Josh are all from the Minneapolis area.




What a wild group of people. Apparently Rachel knew some of the folks at the local conservative talk radio show and did an interview while we were standing in line. She is very funny and so easy to talk to. Put some glasses on Rachel and she looks very much like the Governor.

Josh is an Iraq war veteran who was badly injured in 2006. For several hours in line we heard about his story and incidents in Iraq. He was in Iraq for a year and a half during the worst moments of the Iraq war for 18 months in 2003 to 2004. He then went back to Iraq in 2006. Josh’s very closest friend was killed in Iraq. After Josh’s severe injuries, he came home and began to write songs dedicated to those lost during the war. Josh has sung at some of the memorial services.

A couple of weeks ago, Josh was on the Mike Huckabee show to honor those that have fallen. As we were standing in line, Josh emailed me the links to his interview with Mike Huckabee and the song that he wrote and sang on the Huckabee show.

I was so touched by Josh’s story; I felt it was necessary to share the videos with you. Stop for a moment and remember the soldiers that will not be with their families again at this holiday season. They paid the ultimate price; they gave their lives for you and me and our freedom.

Interview with Josh Revak:



Empty Boots:



Jeff was Josh’s sidekick pushing Josh to get a copy of the CD for us and the Governor as we stood in line. Josh finally called his wife and she drove over with their beautiful little girls just to bring copies of Josh’s CD.

As we stood in line for hours, we continuously pushed Josh into giving the Governor a copy of CD. When it was finally our turn, Josh did spend a moment with the Governor and he did actually give her a copy of the CD. He mentioned to the Governor that he was on Mike Huckabee’s show a couple of weeks ago and she said she saw the program. Josh was touched, and it looked like the Governor was touched also.

Help Josh out at this website.

You can purchase the CD or some of the songs at Josh and Jeff's website, The21Gun.com. Josh plans on continuing to carry the message of his fellow soldiers out to the rest of the world, giving all of us to grieve for those men and woman that have made the ultimate sacrifice.

As far as the tomato thrower, we never saw it happen. Although, everything came to a dead stop at one point and only for a few minutes. Perhaps it happened then.

Also, most of us did not see the trip up the stairs that the Governor tweeted about. At the beginning of the event as the Governor came in, the media were all standing on risers a couple a rows from the front blocking the view of 99% of us.

All in all, this day is a day I will not soon forget. It was worth the drive to meet the Governor and the other great Americans standing in line sharing this moment.