CRP and other details

Amidst relocating, traveling for three straight weekends and starting grad school this week, it's been tough to find a spot to blog. But Sir Thomas More's comment has prompted me to do so regardless. :)

The CRP was a well attended, diverse and exciting event to attend and work. Being in the press room was tremendous fun, but the downside was that I only had one real perspective of the event, as we were all but held captive in that room. (Journalism is apparently a 24/7 thing. Who knew?)

Friday after work, I drove to the beautiful Hyatt Regency Century City where I was immediately whisked away to choose from the plethora of parties going on outside. There was a cigar smoking tent (yes, with handrolled items), a birthday party for some Republican bigwig that all were invited to, and a number of other private and public parties. Republicans do know how to put on an event, I will say that.

Saturday morning started reeeeally early. Too early. All the same, it was a neat experience to meet many of the writers I've read over the years and others I've watched on crossfire type shows since I was a girl. Commentators like Sherry Bebitch Jeffe and Hugh Hewitt sharing the same room for hours on end was also entertaining, to say the least.

The highlight of the pressroom was hearing all the journalists rag on Phil Angelides. They certainly didn't "hold back" on how they felt about a press conference (by phone) that he held immediately following Governor Schwarzenegger's speech, given at Saturday's luncheon. While most of the writers tend to veer far left in their bias, you can take my word for it when I assure you they're not exactly on the Angelides team.

But the highlight of the entire weekend was Governor Mitt Romney's speech at the sold out dinner event on Saturday evening. The young up-and-comers had told me that Gov. Romney was a captivating speaker, but when I heard that he'd have a 45 minute block to speak, my response was, "No one's that captivating."

Wrong.

Governor Romney had me in tears. Twice. The man's a brilliant orator, lover of America and tried and true Republican. And he only took 20 minutes, which made me like him even more.

Many pundits have speculated that his biggest hurdle in his race for the presidency will be the fact that he's Mormon. But for all I've seen, he is the most charismatic, truly Republican candidate that we have so far, and I wouldn't feel uncomfortable in the slightest voting for him. Especially after thoroughly understanding all he's accomplished in his business life and his political career. You've got to hand it to a man who's a Republican governor of an entirely liberal state and legislature. (Quick aside: Romney mentioned that he's vetoed somewhere around 17 different initiatives that would cost the state of Massachusetts over $458 million. His legislature overturned every one of his vetoes, but he's committed to keep vetoing to show that he's for fiscal responsibility.)

I'm sure I could drum up a copy of his speech, but it wouldn't do him justice. He truly was a riveting personality and I'm now greatly anticipating the excitement of the '08 election.

That's all for now. Hope it made sense. :)