WCVB Executive Producer Jenny Barron at the RNC
After a slow beginning here in St. Paul, the Republican National Convention is starting to get back on track.
This morning started with a conference call with GOP leaders and folks from the McCain campaign. They carefully spelled out today’s schedule, explaining that they had to shuffle the speaker schedule in an effort to make up for the day they lost. They also made it clear that things will be “day by day” around here.
Our first order of business was to catch up with former Massachusetts Governor and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Romney, now a strong backer of John McCain, was the featured speaker at the breakfast for the Massachusetts Delegation.
The second he arrived, Romney was instantly surrounded by reporters, many of them from the baystate. He was peppered with questions on a range of topics. Would he want to serve in a McCain cabinet? (No, he feels he can do more from the outside.) Did he think Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was vetted properly? (Yes, he had faith in the campaign’s process.) Would he be interested in another run for the White House? (Thanks for asking, but he’s backing John McCain.)
Romney gave a short speech to his fellow baystaters over coffee and orange juice. He even told a joke about an ice fishing contest between John McCain and Barack Obama. The Democrat is losing and sets out to figure out why. He discovered McCain was doing something he wasn’t: drilling a hole in the ice. Somehow, Romney implied, this relates to Obama’s experience level. Well, he got a laugh, anyway.
Tonight, the first real speeches of this convention get underway. It will be interesting to see how the GOP crowd reacts to Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman…once a Democrat, now an independent…taking their podium in prime time.
Oh, and we just heard that the teenage father of Bristol Palin’s unborn child is headed from Alaska to St. Paul as we speak. That is bound to make tomorrow rather eventful…
Stay tuned…
