Palin Power

We, along with the rest of the Nation, are still reeling from the shock of John McCain’s announcement of his decision to choose our Governor, Sarah Palin as his running mate. The weeks since the big news have been quite a blur around here and we’ve been through the whole gamut of emotions-disbelief, shock, elation, pride, ownership, to name a few. Since that watching her walk onto the stage with John McCain where he first introduced her to the Nation that morning (I was of course fighting tears of joy and pride!) things around our house have gotten back into the campaign swing again. With our history with Sarah I was quick to get online and find out how to get involved and help support the campaign. From there it’s done the usual snowballing:

It all started with phone calls from all over the country-no, we had no idea ahead of time that McCain had picked her (not even her kids knew until they got there!) Yes, we are totally excited.

Then came the media cameos- several pictures of myself and Sarah from election night turned up in the Anchorage Daily News as well as on their website. Then came a phone call from a friend in Seattle- “Oh my goodness, I just saw you on the news. The National news…NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” Hence my National News debut-a short clip that included a shot of Sarah and I holding hands watching the first precinct results come in on election night (the same moments the photos featured).

Me (and Ella the night before the rally)

Then came the Secret Service (seriously!)A few weeks ago, mid week I got a very unusual, and surprising phone call. A lady from the campaign was calling, asking if she could release my name and number to the Secret Service…there was going to be a local event, she didn’t know what, where or even when exactly that Saturday and I was on the list of invitees. If I approved her releasing my info then I’d get a call later in the week with more details. True to her word, I got that call Friday afternoon. We were asked to be downtown that evening for a pre-event briefing about security and other details for Saturday’s event.

Painting signs for the rally

Turned out Anchorage was having a welcome home Sarah/send off rally at our new convention center. Sycely had a sleep over party at Nanny and Papa’s since our evening went late (sign making for the rally followed the meeting) and we had an early morning on Saturday. We were downtown at 7:00am (Ella snuggled in my front pack), meeting at the prescribed location to be escorted into the building by the Secret Service Sean (a member of the Advance Team). Our job was basically to bolster the enthusiasm at the event and block out any anti-Palin crazies.



It didn’t take long before we were back campaigning with the old crew from the Palin for Governor campaign team. Shortly before the rally started we were whisked (by the Director of the Anchorage Governor’s office and past campaign manager) up onto the stage to sit in the bleachers directly behind Sarah. You know those people you always see in the camera shot during a speech, sitting behind them, next to their family? Yeah, that was us. Hence our international television/print media debut .

Our view from the bleachers on stage

It was neat to see things from a difference vantage point and see what Sarah sees when she’s giving those speeches up there, to see the signs, hear the clicking press cameras, etc. I got to have a nice chat with her fam, and Ella got to finally meet her in person. Since then I’ve resumed my old post and am answering the emails for the Alaska office for McCain/Palin. Surprisingly, it’s not as overwhelming as I though it’d be and I’m actually fielding fewer emails than during the gubernatorial race. We’re looking forward to this week’s VP debate and seeing our girl in action. We’re still completely overwhelmed that Sarah could not only be the next VP, but very possibly president someday. My how far we’ve come from those early days-and to think all this time we thought being Governor was the ultimate goal and that we’d reached it. Little did we know, God had so, SO much more in store!