Our morning meetings with the Minnesota delegatins have been very interesting. This morning we are opening with a speech from Jim Ramstead, the outgoing congressman from the 3rd district. He told a fantastic story about his youth, where he turned his little red wagon into a campaign bandwagon for Ike, and was invited to the national convention to pull his wagon across the stage. One of the nice things about coming to these conventions is that you discover stories about our politicians that are as heartwarming as they are surprising. Ramstead left us with an important message: even if we have won the 3rd in the past, we have to still work hard to get Erik Paulsen into office.

John Kline followed Jim reluctantly: "now I know how Sarah Palin must have felt following Rudy Giuliani, how do I follow Jim's speech?". But John does great: he delivers a message about earmark budgeting in Congress. "The system is broken and corrupt and needs to be fixed, we are calling for an immediate moratorium on earmarks in our platform: real change and real reform, not just empty rhetoric like Barack Obama."

John left us with some other good thoughts: "you cannot have employees without employers", and also a discussion about our energy policy.

Next up is special guest John Thune! The man who defeated Tom Daschel! John talks to us about the importance of energy policy and explained his beliefs that we need to open more drilling and more Nuclear power opportunities, and that energy needs to be American energy.

Frank Luntz from fox news spoke to us about how Americans listen to political speeches. "when you say something, people don't just listen to what you say, they listen to how you articulate it and the emotion behind it."

Our capstone speaker for mid morning of star studded speakers was Col. Leo Thorsness. Leo grew up in Walnut Grove, Minnesota - the Little House on the Prairie. When McCain was captured by the Vietnamese, Leo had already been there for six months. "I didn't live with John McCain, he lived with me!"

Leo confirmed the story about how John was offered the chance to leave early, but declined. They all had a rule: "One goes we all go." and John was first to prove this rule: he stayed with his men and suffered for many more years.

It's been a great morning so far and a fantastic star to the day!