WHAT A DAY! Sarah visits Richmond

WHAT A DAY! I had the pleasure of joining more than 20,000 other supports at a rally today for Sarah Palin. VERY inspiring and a fantastic speaker. She covered several important topics, ranging from Clean Coal Energy, freezing government spending on non-essentials, and made a statement directly at Obama et al with “the arrogance of the Washington elite” and “anger about voter fraud.” (If you've lived in Chicago for any amount of time or know their political history, you understand)

It was a great event, but POORLY organized, unfortunately. It was a standing room only contingency at RIR and unless you arrived well before 10 am, you weren't allowed into the inner circle (which held maybe 1,000-2,000). It was frustrating as we had already been standing in a line for 3 hours that twisted and wound around the grassy area behind the stadium 10 rows deep. If you think waiting for rides at Disney World is bad, you haven't seen anything yet!

I met another open-minded friend who had driven down from Alexandria, actually wound up with some great photo's (despite my camera battery dying 1/2 way through and resorting to my cell phone camera) and waited until the very end when the crowd was less than a few hundred. We worked our way around the barriers and were lucky enough to come within 6-8 feet of Sarah and Todd. The crowd at that level was unbearable, people pushing and stepping on each other, wanting to get closer to the woman who will be the next VP. I also LOVED that they played Shania Twain's "She's Not Just Another Pretty Face" - SO FITTING - which almost seemed like her theme song.

I'd say the only annoying things (outside of the disorganization) were that I felt sorry for the people 60/70 and older. They were standing right beside us in the heat. One gentleman with a cane lost his footing and collapsed onto us. One of the gals with us was kind enough to go all the way back to her car to get him a seat. Then, three people over a woman actually fainted. Second, the ABSURD and FRUSTRATING error in reporting and headlines by the press! (BIG surprise, huh?) Keep reading....

What I am talking about are the headlines that state "Palin mistakes fans for protesters at rally". It was SO off the mark and embarrassing- so I'm making a point of correcting it HERE! There WERE protesters there.... about 20' away. They were shouting about the war and guns and bombs. THAT is when Sarah made her statement about supporting the troops. I read where one reporter stated Todd actually stood up to correct her and say people were shouting "LOUDER!" (that came about 10 minutes later, actually). How on EARTH would a reporter know what Todd said to her... gimmie a break! What you DID hear right after Sarah's statement was OUR contingency shouting "SARAH! SARAH!" There you have it folks... the REAL facts and time line. If THAT doesn't prove how off the mark the media is, nothing does (and I was shocked to see Fox jump on that bandwagon considering how conservative and White House scripted they are)

When you have a moment, take a peak at the pictures I posted from the rally on my Facebook page. I didn't get an autograph or touch the future "First Dude" (lol), but being that close to a great woman is as good as it gets.