A Night with Megan and Palin

I am guessing that this post will get rather long. Megan and I had such a great experience at the Sarah Palin rally that I want to record some of that night here for journaling's sake.

We got to the high school at about 8:00 pm to find that there were already a few thousand people in line. She wasn't scheduled to come until 10 pm, so we thought we were doing well. We were a bit nervous that we wouldn't get in (we knew they were going to cut the line off at about 2,000 people...although I later found out there were closer to 3,000 crammed in). Fortunately, after about 45 minutes, we were let in. We walked through airport-like security manned by very official looking officers with "secret service" patches on their shirts.

We had the option of standing by the stage area. There was even room to stand right next to the raised walkway she would eventually come out on. I told Megan that we could stay there and maybe even have a chance to shake her hand there, but we'd be standing for 2-3 hours. After about 5 minutes, Megan decided it would be better to find a seat. It was starting to get late and she was getting very tired.

The seats we got actually ended up being very entertaining because we sat just above where the campaign workers/rally organizers were buzzing around. And, eventually, we were right above Sarah Palin's computer crew. We could read her teleprompter on the laptop of the aide in charge of scrolling it for her. Watching Palin, I would never know that there was a teleprompter going. She seemed very natural and left the script a lot. I never saw her staring in any one direction.

My favorite part of the night was actually before the Palin camp even got to Elko. They didn't arrive until about 11:20 but the local organizers and McCain staff sent ahead started the program at 10:00 as scheduled. They opened with the national anthem sung by a local women. She did a phenomenal job, but what was particularly moving, was that just about every person there was singing with her. Not just moving their lips, but full-out singing. I have never experienced anything like that-at least not with the Star Spangled Banner. Usually you see a few people singing in an audience...but you can't hear them. It felt like being in a choir. No one held back and it was truly beautiful and I had huge goosebumps.

While we waited and waited, the campaign handed out posters, flags, pompoms and bumper stickers. In the beginning, people would see the new goodies and wave their arms frantically like, "Pick me! Pick me! I want a sign! I want a flag!" It soon became apparent that there were more than plenty to go around though. Being the last campaign stop, I think we were the lucky ones to get all the leftover stuff from months of campaigning. It kept things interesting for the long wait though.

Finally, a little after 11, we got word that Palin's plane had landed and they were on their way to the high school. Elko is one of those towns that you can drive all the way through in about 5 minutes and on a long trip,if you aren't paying attention you wonder, "Did we just pass through a real town?" so it didn't take long for them to make their way from our little airport to the gathering.

I say "them" because she had a huge entourage with her (two busloads to be exact-we saw them pull out as we left the building). Most of the posse was national media. It was an almost surreal thing to see them file in hurrying to set up before Palin made her entrance. If someone had asked me before this night if I thought big city north easterners would stand out in Elko, I would have said, "nah." But, I stand corrected. These people were SO obviously not from Elko.

I looked around the gym at the people of my new home to see the mullets, Wranglers, cowboy hats, mine-company sweatshirts, women with permed and died hair that starts half-way down their backs and families dressed up in their Sunday-best that looked a little more like "Little House" folk than modern big city folk. This is not a dig. I truly love this little town and I include myself in these criticisms (if you want to see them that way). But, it was almost like not realizing your house is a mess until company shows up unexpectedly, when the big-city press walked in. Women who had been travelling (to 5 different states) all day long behind Sarah Palin were in tailored skirt-suits and fancy high heels and men with polished Italian (of course I'm guessing here-very expensive looking anyway) leather shoes, designer jeans with sports coats and chichi scarves elegantly folded around their necks. If an Elko man walked down the street with a $200 scarf wrapped around his neck, he'd be thrown out of town...or at least mocked. We were literally only about 20-30 feet away from the press area and it was fun to watch them.

I thought it was very interesting that no homemade signs were allowed through security. I already mentioned that signs were handed out by the ton. These were pre-printed signs. Directly behind the stage (I'm sure for TV's sake) homemade-looking signs were handed out by the campaign. And all my life I assumed all those people on TV had made their own signs. Not so. My favorite of these said, "Todd 4 second dude."

Another favorite moment was when Sarah's dad spoke. He only talked for about 45 seconds but his last words were something like, "When Sarah was a little girl I taught her how to field dress a moose. Tomorrow, she will learn how to field dress a donkey!" This got a huge positive reaction from the hunter-filled audience. However, my sister, Kim, who lives in southern California later told me that as she watched him say this live on CNN or one of the other big networks (filmed by the frufy dressed press I spoke of earlier) she cringed to think that the rest of the world could hear him say that. I never even thought that it might be offensive to other people not so accustomed to "hunters-speak". Hopefully, Sarah's fathers remarks didn't cost them any votes the next day.

I also want to mention how gorgeous Sarah Palin is. You can see from the video how far we actually were from her, but even from that distance (actually we walked much closer to her as she was leaving) you could tell that she has a perfect cute little body. I know this is really not important in the grand scheme of things, but it was almost shocking how beautiful she is in person.

Last, I just want to mention how cool it was to be a part of something that felt like history. I watched the Elko High School band members and the cute cheerleaders who all performed and wondered if they could possibly understand the significance of not only a national politician coming to this tiny town (I have mentioned many times before that many have come here) how rare that really is for small-town America, and the fact that it was a woman...who nearly became the vice president of the United States. There was truly a remarkable spirit there. The fact that so many people (almost a quarter of the population of Elko) stayed with their young children until midnight on a school/work night really says something and I am thankful that Megan and I had the opportunity to experience it with them.