REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION: Brunch With Fred

Right now I'm at a blogger brunch - located on the top floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, with a great panoramic view of St. Paul - featuring former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee. About 65 bloggers, including one from Japan, are in attendance at this invitation-only event sponsored by Google and RedState. I am the only black blogger, and one of about a half dozen females in attendance. Although I am a moderate-conservative, compared to the folks in attendance I'm practically liberal. This is definitely a red meat, conservative Republican set.

Because Sen. Thompson was running about 30 minutes late - it was blamed on traffic, but I encountered zero traffic we bloggers had a chance to intermingle. I sat at a table and chatted with bloggers from RedState, a college journalism student working for a local newspaper in Alabama, and a woman who works for Human Events. A few of us had a conversation around the buffet that we were grateful for this free brunch so we wouldn't have to pay $9 (!) for a simple sandwich and $4 for bottled water at the Xcel Convention Center.

Our table was about six steps away from the former U.S. Senator, who actually looks younger and tanner (perhaps due to the magic of stage makeup) than he does on television. Sen. Fred Thompson swung by the blogger brunch in advance of this speech tonight, where he said that he will talk about Sen. John McCain's "remarkable story of leadership and character." The Tennessee conservative Sen. Thompson said that he as glad to meet with us new media types, "We need some new media, as I've been dealing with the old media all morning." After somewhat brief comments, he is taking questions from three bloggers.

On the mainstream media: "The New York Times only recognizes scandal when it's a Republican", said Sen. Thompson. "It's shameful, it's an excuse for journalism", he argued, regarding how the mainstream media is treating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. "They're going wild over this lady's daughter. They're doing what responsible parents do in relation to their daughter. The media doesn't understand how people feel about it, and how they'll react if they push it too far."

On foreign policy & national security: "We're living in a world now where we know about the dangers of terrorism, we know that there are rogue states talking about nuclear capability, we know about India and Pakistan, we face a newly belligerent Russia, Iran, and an increasingly competitive China."

On Sen. Barack Obama, foreign policy & national security: "It's no time to turn over the keys over to a 14-year-old in the middle of traffic."

On Gov. Palin: "The media has no idea about the excitement that this woman [Palin] is generating. It is reflected in increased fundraising, in increased enthusiasm...She is the sort of the public servant that we say we want. Somebody who will stand up to authority, stand up to members of her own party, and. That's what, that's what you got. We know someone else like it - he's at the top of the ticket. They're gonna go to Washington, take things by the scruff of the neck, and shake things up."

On Palin vs. Obama: "Our vice presidential candidate has more experience than their presidential candidate. Being a community organizer is not equal to being a governor. He was atate senator where he voted present about half the time - just a little exaggeration. And he's been in the Senate for how long?" Sen. Thompson then argued that U.S. Senate experience alone does not make one a good presidential candidate.

Responding to one blogger's question regarding whether he would serve in a McCain administration: He wouldn't answer the question. In fact, he stated that he couldn't answer the question. "I'm returning to the real world - the real world of Hollywood. Working in the political sphere makes you wish for the real world, the realism of Hollywood" to laughter.

On FredPAC: "It will be a PAC devoted to conservative principles....It will deal with questions having to do with the role and size of government. Our founders had it right. They understood human nature, the way the world works...In a changing world, there are some things that don't change. That's what our country was about, the need to separate federal and state powers. There's a reason for that, which also has to deal with the judiciary."

Ironically, only six or seven of us are actually using our laptops to blog. It would have been nice to take a photo with him, but quickly left with a small entourage after the Q&A period so no one got a photo with him.

I met a bunch of other bloggers and other people in attendance, who were all pretty nice: Michael Bates of BatesLine (Tulsa, Oklahoma); Jon Henke of New Media Strategies (Arlington, Va.); Eric Golub of The Tygrrrr Express (Los Angeles metro), who is a self-described Jewish conservative who interviewed Armstrong Williams yesterday about being in a minority community and being conservative; and Lance Burri (Baraboo, Wisconsin), who touted himself as having "the smallest blog in this room". Lance and I had a lengthier conversation about how we moved away from liberalism and towards conservatism.

Next up on my schedule today: The "Growth, Opportunity & Prosperity Forum", sponsored by the National Black Republican Leadership Council at a local church.

UPDATE: Because I was so quick with uploading my stuff - other bloggers were seemingly surprised that I was posting stuff during the event - a guy from C-SPAN gave me his card to send my convention posts to them for C-SPAN's convention hub.