John McCain

A riverboat welcome.: Politicker photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - If the Democratic National Convention provided a simple conflict-resolution storyline, the Republican counterpart took the shape of a Quentin Tarentino script in comparison, with a hurricane threatening to throw everything off and the New Jersey delegation heading out on a river boat cruise anyway and doing relief work in the morning, and protest actions punctuating the streets.

All against the backdrop of McCain/Palin.

Despite a gaffe-filled Tuesday production, with Jo Ann Davidson, co chair of the Republican National Committee, referring to Alaska Gov. Sarah "Pawlenty," and a trio of gray or white-haired prime time speech-makers, including an unpopular sitting president and a former Democrat, hardly igniting the New Jersey delegates.

Tear gas cartridges hit the pavement outside the Xcel Center

"The protesters are all in here fighting with police," said the cabby on the way out of the downtown.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- On Friday, State Sen. Bill Baroni flew in to Minneapolis/St. Paul, knowing that a Hurricane was bearing down on a town 1,000 miles south.  And through the convention, he’s been not only the point man, but the official face of New Jersey.

Last night, Baroni, perhaps McCain’s most visible backer in New Jersey, had the cast the state’s votes for John McCain.

“This has been a nine year journey with the McCain campaign.  Nine years ago I was doing advance events in Michigan and California for Sen. McCain.  Nine years later I had the opportunity to stand and cast our votes for John McCain. That’s an extraordinarily humbling moment,” he said.

Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).: Politicker file photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - It’s several hours until Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) takes the stage downtown at the Xcel Center and one of his supporters sits in a hotel where the New Jersey delegation is housed, and he reflects on the years he’s spent in support of this man who would be president.

Soon he will again observe McCain in person.

State Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex), a state campaign co-chair for McCain, goes back to 2000 in his support. But it was during the 2008 Republican presidential primary that he deepened his respect for the Arizona senator and recognized up close what he sees as McCain’s particular leadership qualities.

"He came into Hamilton - and look, I’ve been in politics going back to 1984, I’ve been around presidents and the rest of it, it’s heady stuff - but we were sitting in the back of a bus that day in Hamilton: Baroni, and Sean Kean and others who have long supported McCain," O’Toole says. "Lindsay Graham and Joe Lieberman were there, and so was John McCain."

The presidential candidate talked strategy, and seated with him, O’Toole, the Essex County political insider who came up in politics the hard way, says unabashedly that he felt he was in the presence of greatness.

MINNEAPOLIS - John Murphy walks up onto the stage. He’s pumped from the Palin speech.

"If Michelle Obama was watching last night, it’s probably the second time in her adult life that she’s proud to be an American," says Murphy, a reference to remarks by the Democratic presidential nominee’s that her husband’s Iowa victory provided her with her first moment of pride in country in her adult life.

"In my adult life," the Morris County freeholder says, "I’ve always been proud to be an American."

The crowd claps.

Murphy stays with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

"Our rock star tells jokes and has experience," he says. "The turning point for the general election was last night. Those independents and even a boatload of Democrats who were Hillary supporters know we have two candidates who are the real deal."

MINNEAPOLIS - The breakfast gathering welcomes U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding) to the podium as a friend of military veterans and longtime supporter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Frelinghuysen stands between the flags of the Untied States and New Jersey and exhorts the small crowd to support congressional candidates Medford Mayor Chris Myers in the 3rd District and state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) in the 7th.

"We need to keep Republicans in the House from New Jersey," he says. "These are tough races. Democrats in those races have raised a considerable amount of money. ...We need to work toward a Republican majority in both the House and Senate."

Applause.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech last night is still bringing smiles to the faces of those in this room, and the congressman seizes on the mood.

MINNEAPOLIS - It was all about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at the GOP breakfast meeting this morning.

She’s speaking tonight at the Republican National Convention, and State Party chairman Tom Wilson has brought in Republican strategist and New Jersey native Kelly Anne Conway to pump up the troops.

Owner of The Polling Company, KellyAnne Conway, Conway objected to the press coverage of the Palin story, and press coverage of politics in general.

"They’ve asked ridiculous questions like who you would rather have a beer with," she complained. "We have had a campaign focused in large part on like-ability rather than leadership."

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Former Gov. Christie Whitman said that it’s a sad state of affairs that she was the last New Jersey Republican elected statewide.

“This is kind of sad. I’m the last Republican to carry New Jersey. That’s not where we want to be as a state, and we have an opportunity to change that,” she said at the state’s delegation breakfast this morning.

Whitman is far from the most popular Republican in New Jersey, but she received a standing ovation after her remarks, in which she said that she’d never experienced so much enthusiasm at a Republican convention and that John McCain could potentially lead Republicans back to statewide control.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Former Gov. Christie Whitman, who left office during her second term after she was appointed to head the Environmental Protection Agency, said this morning that she thinks John McCain is right on the offshore drilling question.

Whitman said that offshore drilling is worth looking into, as long as it’s up to the states themselves. 

“(McCain) did put a provision in his bill to allow states to have the final word, and that to me is the important thing,” said Whitman as she was leaving the New Jersey delegation’s breakfast.  “We’re the only industrialized nation in the world that is not using all of its resources.  We can not keep saying we care about the price of oil, we’re worried about our energy, where it’s going to come from, and we want to continue to grow.  But we can’t drill, we don’t want to have any coal, we can’t have nuclear, we really don’t like wind power off the coast of Nantucket.  We can’t keep saying no to everything.”

MINNEAPOLIS - George Bush’s face filling a screen at the Xcel Energy Center last night didn’t prompt a chorus of boos because most Republicans still like the president, said State Republican Chairman Tom Wilson.

"He’s liked by a lot of people - remember, the people in that room are mostly hardcore party activists," the state chairman said, "and last night he did what he had to do."

"I know his poll numbers are upside down but I think history will judge him well," said Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore. "No terrorist attack in seven years. We’re doing better in Iraq."

State Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (D-Parsippany-Troy Hills) agreed.

MINNEAPOLIS - The Republican Party can survive the appearance tonight by President George W. Bush broadcast via satellite from the White House, assured former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman.

With the help of the family dog.

On her way to do a CNN interview on the suite level of the convention center shortly before the president made his pitch on behalf of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Whitman said, "Sure," the party can bounce back from Bush.

Strategic Vision places the president’s job approval rating at 15 percent in New Jersey, but Whitman, Bush’s former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said Bush's dog, Barney, is from New Jersey, joking that people will find a connection there.