It was all about Sarah Palin on Thursday night, as Floyd County Republicans met at Schroeder’s New Deli to await John McCain’s acceptance of the party’s presidential nomination.
Click to see a video from the Floyd County Republican Party gathering at Schroeder's New Deli.
“Finally a woman — a powerful, strong woman with family values — is getting the recognition she deserves,” said Layla Shipman, vice chairwoman of the Floyd County Young Republicans.
Handmade signs boosting McCain’s vice presidential pick decked the walls of the room where about 35 supporters and candidates snacked and chatted in front of a television broadcasting the convention.
Bret Rudeseal said he wouldn’t have been in the room if Palin hadn’t been on the ticket. Now, he’s prepared to canvass for votes and donate to McCain’s campaign.
“She’s a very rare and unusual lady,” Rudeseal said. “She’s been beat up and assaulted by the Democrats and mainstream media for a week, but last night she gave it back with both barrels.”
Joanna McDowell, who came in with a group of Berry College Young Republicans, was one of the few who said they had backed McCain from the start.
Mike Huckabee won 38 percent of the Floyd County vote in the nine-man Republican primary, although John McCain was second with 32.2 percent.
“I was already a supporter, but Sarah Palin made it so much better,” McDowell said. “A lot of people who were going to vote for (Democrat Barack) Obama are now reconsidering because she’s a woman. She’s a fresh face.”
The revelers took time out to share a call from Cookie Wozniak, the first Floyd County delegate to the Republican National Convention in decades.
Wozniak was scheduled to call at 9:15 p.m. from the floor of the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. but phoned nearly an hour early.
A microphone was held next to the phone so her voice, and the sounds of the convention, filled the restaurant.
“I had to call now,” she said breathlessly. “The later it gets, the louder it gets.”
After a report on her day, Wozniak asked for questions — and the local crowd wanted to know how the convention reacted to Palin’s speech.
“Sarah was wonderful,” she said. “Everybody was so delighted she was chosen as our vice president.”
Mike Morton called Palin “the salt of the earth, the heartland of America,” and he called the convention a monumentally historic occasion.
“We’ve got a candidate talking about hard work, good government and reform, and then to see it’s a woman who can compete with anyone,” he said. “The energy that’s flowing from her is wonderful.”
