Theme: "Make America One Again"
Geauga County Recorder Sharon Gingerich is attending her first Republican National Convention in downtown Cleveland as an alternate delegate for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. She shares what it’s like to attend one of the biggest political events of 2016.
There is one story I want to share with you and will write it up now and finish the rest later.
For lunch yesterday we decided to visit the JACK. I had never been inside, even went was the Horseshoe Casino. We have been hearing for months about how bad it was going to be in Cleveland. We heard that there was going to be all this violence. We have watched terrible violent sad things on TV in the past year.
Here’s the rest of the story.
We had a police officer walk us through the building to the hotel to the casino. He was from Holmes County. Since we were from Geauga and Medina, we were neighbors in a way, so we talked.
He had been a cop for 21 years and he told us that throughout all his career he’s never been thanked as much as he had been thanked this week.
He told us that one night he was out doing a sweep of the building and he was taking a smoke break. As he stood there, a man on a bicycle started coming his way, swearing at him. He told the officer in no uncertain terms he was going to kill him. Then, he said after he was dead he was going to go through his wallet and find out who his family was and he was going to kill them.
The officer told him to have a nice day, but was studying his hands to make sure he didn’t pull a weapon. He was not paying attention to other things and, suddenly, there were nine more big guys all dressed in black around the officer.
The officer had recently had back surgery and knew he could not fight his way out of the situation. He was afraid he was going to have to pull his gun.
The leader of this group exchanged some words with the guy on the bicycle. Then he turned to the cop and said don’t believe everything you hear in the news, all lives matter.
The group of men threatened the guy on the bike, chased him away and disappeared into the shadows.
If you take nothing else out of this convention, realize what a phenomenal job our police have done. They stood there for hours. in the heat every day and in those horribly hot uniforms, protecting us. They kept the peace in the city. They made all of Northeast Ohio look good.
To the police community, we owe you our gratitude. Thank you.
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MORE FROM DAY 3
Sorry I haven’t been able to keep up but from Wednesday afternoon on, all was a big blur. Besides the computer connection was so slow it was almost impossible to use. You can imagine that entire hotel booked with everyone blogging or using their computers. It’s no wonder I couldn’t get online.
We went to another Jon Husted event on Wednesday afternoon at the Powerhouse in the Flats. It was in Windows on the River. It was so much fun to watch all the people from other areas walk out on the porch and rave about the view.
They were impressed with the beautiful river (you know the one that had a reputation for catching on fire). They just raved about the view and the boats going up and down the river. Many people vowed to return to take a brunch or dinner cruise on the Nautica Queen, or take in the night life in the Flats.
While we were in the one room having lunch, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was in a nearby room speaking to another delegation. We were hoping he would drop in and speak to us, but there was a bit of a hesitancy from elected officials to speak to Ohio delegates. I will tell you more about that later.
There was a reception in the Science Center after the Powerhouse event, but I went to the room and tried to get some rest.
It was back at The Q by 6 p.m. I was on the floor quite a bit. While I was not there for Laura Ingram, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker or Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, I was there for Ted Cruz. Oh my.
It was an interesting speech. I thought he was doing pretty well. He was saying a lot of things that got a lot of cheers. Then, suddenly, he was leaving the stage and people were booing him. I really didn’t understand until I asked someone. I was told that he had not endorsed Trump and was expected to.
Apparently, I am not as politically saavy as I thought I was. I just assumed that it was an endorsement if you spoke at the Convention where Trump was named the candidate. Cruz said things that the people agreed with and that are part of Trump’s campaign, so that was really confusing for me.
Of course, later Cruz did an interview that explained he indeed did not endorse Trump. The whole situation fell apart from there.
Then I got to sit and listen to “Cousin Newt.” Oh welL, at least I can say I was on the “floor” when he spoke at the 2016 RNC Convention.
When this ended around 11 p.m., we went to Gray’s Armory to hear Dave Yost, Marshall Tucker Band and Bill O’Reilly.
As happened every night, almost all of the events were over by the time the session ended. That really was disappointing. So, we missed hearing Dave Yost and Bill O’Reilly was gone when we got there. We walked there from The Q.
We did get to hear the Marshall Tucker Band. They had everyone up and dancing. I am not sure how anybody can stand up let alone be dancing at that hour after a day like we had.
We decided to Uber home. It was an interesting ride home. Sally and Tom Florkiewitz were in the car with me. Someone else arranged for the transportation. We were getting out of the car and someone said something to the driver about Uber and he said, he is not Uber. He wasn’t a taxi either, so I am not sure what that was all about.
More about Thursday, the last day, in my next post.
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MORE FROM DAY 4
Thursday was the last day and it was a busy one.
Mary Taylor was the host of our last breakfast. Gov. Kasich introduced her and spoke to the Ohio delegation about the pride we have in our state and the good impression people will take away from our state.
He talked about all that we have accomplished since he has been governor and it’s true. He has done a lot of good things for the state. While he took credit for the good things, I found it really interesting when he said that he had over-reached on SB5 and that it was a really tough time.
I will write more about the governor in my wrap up diary entry.
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman also spoke to us. If you did not know it, he had a Habitat for Humanity project going on during the convention. A lot of the Ohio delegation and their guests worked on 17 homes. He said he even saw Kathy Creed, former Trumbull County chairwoman, hammering nails on the underside of a deck on one of the homes.
He said that the hotels are full, the restaurants were packed, the streets and other venues were crowded, but all the people will leave after tonight. What will remain are the 17 homes that we built for the people in Cleveland. I wonder . . . were there any national media stories about that?
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was also one of our breakfast speakers. She had spoken at the convention the day before. I liked the fact she started her speech by recognizing JoAnn Davidson and Betty Montgomery. JoAnn is a remarkable woman and deserves every bit of credit she receives.
Bondi said she was all for building a wall. There is so much heroin and cocaine that comes in through her state, somebody has to do something to stop it.
She said Bloomberg took out $10 million worth of ads against her and others. She said he could have spent that money on the fight against drugs.
He is accusing her of wanting dirty water and dirty air. Really? It is funny when the opposition says that. Who really would want dirty air and water?
She ended by saying please don’t do anything to get the opposition elected; she is so tired of suing the President.
We went to the JACK for lunch and to see the casino. I didn’t get to use any of the slot machines because I couldn’t figure out how. The place was surprisingly deserted and there really wasn’t anyone around to ask. It’s like night and day between there and Las Vegas. I can see why the Cleveland casino isn’t doing all that well. It should have been packed in there.
Then we walked over to Public Square. I wanted to see what they had done. I saw my first protest group. They were standing on the square with signs. While I wanted to see the rest of the square, I decided to listen to the small voice in my head that said get out of there. You get used to going everywhere with an armed guard or groups of armed people . . . it’s a little unnerving to be on your own, even in Northeast Ohio.
We went back to the hotel to get ready for Ohio SoS Jon Husted’s Tailgate Party on the top of the parking garage at the Doubletree.
That was a lot of fun. Everyone was there gearing up for the last session. They were all hoping that things would continue to be peaceful and positive.
My son Nick even Ubered in from Bay Village. It was another highlight of the week to be able to introduce Nick to all of my friends. He is such a great guy, accomplished engineer and fine young Republican man.
We were treated to typical tailgate food, brats, chicken, pierogis, ice cream, locally brewed beer, vodka, cigars, melting buckeyes, etc. Then it was off to convention.
Fran Tarkenton was one of our first speakers. I had no idea he was so funny. I don’t remember what he said, but I know he made me laugh. We heard from Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn; Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin; Jerry Falwell Jr.; Peter Thiel (the guy who created Pay Pal) and Reince Priebus among others, all building up to Ivanka and her father.
The media has said a lot about Trump’s speech, some good some bad. I enjoyed his speech. I was worried when he started chanting USA with the crowd. I was afraid the national media would make fun of him for doing that. We liked it, but you know how that goes.
He says things that are on the minds of the people in this country. They are things that aren’t supposed to be said out loud because some of them are “politically incorrect.” He seemed to know what the average person is really worried about. If he does what he says he will do, I think we will be in good shape.
If he limits the colorful expressions from all of his future speeches, then I think a lot more people will listen to what he has to say.
I also was pretty proud of the way he handled a protester. Some woman in the next section to my right came in with a sign and stood up on one of the seating shelves to wave it. It said, “Build bridges not fences…” and that was all I could read of it. If you were watching the convention, you would have noticed Trump looking to his left and not saying anything for a few minutes. I am betting that he was choosing his words carefully.
Finally, he said something about the police doing such a good job and did not mention her at all. I thought that was a really smart move — a presidential move.
How in the world that woman got in is beyond me. Security was so tight there. They confiscated my Recorder pencils that I was handing out. They thought I was going to use them as a weapon. He was going to ask his superior and I just said keep them. It’s OK. Even Bill O’Reilly had to show his creds to get in.
Someone would have had to have given that woman protester credentials to get into The Q. It was not easy to get in there. I would guess one thing, that if she got creds from one of her elected officials or party people, she is going to pretty much be persona non grata in her world.
Then the balloons finally dropped … and dropped … and dropped. The confetti came down first, then the balloons went section by section. It really was a lot of fun to watch. I wish I could have been on the floor for that, but it was still fun.
As we were trying to leave The Q, I had a newsman with a camera man try to interview me. Normally I would have said yes, but I really wanted to get out of there before the rest of the mob came out, so I told him no.
I got back to the hotel about 1 a.m. and dropped off my bag of stuff. There was a final party at the rooftop of our hotel. I looked at the door out of the room, I looked at the bed . . . and the bed won. I just couldn’t do anymore. I know there were parties with Kid Rock and some other famous groups, but I just couldn’t do anymore.
This has gone on long enough. But I want to write one more article on my overall impressions of what happened this week. I promise it will be shorter.
