David Holt from the Republican Convention NewsOK.com Blogging Community

Friday, the Oklahoma delegates will all fly home or begin their drives back.  There are no events scheduled.  In other ends, it’s over.

This was a truly historic, fascinating week that will long be remembered in American political history.  It really began last Thursday night, with a speech by Barack Obama that probably won this year’s prize for political stage craft.  That left many Republicans wondering if trying to follow that was like trying to plan the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies. 

But then within 12 hours, Sarah Palin changed everything, and the crazy week really took off. 

Then, the RNC began under a cloud of cancellations and nonpartisanship, due to Hurricane Gustav.  And finally, by Wednesday and Thursday, it had evolved into what appears to be a massively successful event, launching John McCain and Sarah Palin quite possibly into frontrunner status, and certainly no worse than a tie.   

This was a fun week for all of these Oklahomans to be a part of, and I thank you for following the adventure via this blog.  Godspeed.

The oratory of the 2008 Republican National Convention came to a fitting close with John McCain’s acceptance speech.  It was wise, forceful, poignant, and at the conclusion, inspiring.  McCain struck a post-partisan tone, then delivered a fairly standard policy review, and then concluded with a personal story of why his life belongs to his country.  It was not the barn burner that Sarah Palin delivered the night previous, but it was the speech of a man so far beyond his opponent in experience and gravitas that the comparison was never far from your mind.

Members of the Oklahoma delegation clearly had more fun the night before, and in many ways they’ll remember Sarah’s remarks longer, but the two speeches complemented each other, and you couldn’t help but feel he nailed it exactly as he needed to.

The speech concluded with a rousing call to service that, following his personal story, seemed so much more sincere and meaningful than any I had ever heard, and his voice then rising, he demanded that the people of America “fight” with him to make America a better place.  The crowd responded with a roar that left the last 30 seconds of his speech completely unheard in the Xcel Center, but I have seen it three times on TV since, and that finale has given me chills every time.

Here are some pics I took.

I guess one of life’s simple pleasures is watching balloons drop from a ceiling.

I took this picture of Sarah Palin and her husband sitting with John McCain’s mother (Roberta; born in Muskogee) shortly after the Palins arrived at the family/VIP box.  That entire part of the arena stood when she entered.

As an aside, Roberta McCain is something else.  I was interviewed by French TV tonight (you can’t go 10 feet without getting asked for an interview by the literally thousands of credentialed media here), and they asked me about John McCain’s age.  I was able to point at Roberta and say, “Unless John McCain plans to be president for 24 years, I think he’ll be fine.”

Grace Hickman is an at-large Delegate.

Each at large Delegate and Alternate is paired, and Grace was my partner, and a great one at that.  We traded credentials all week, so each of us could be on the Convention floor. 

Grace works at Arvest Bank and lives in Bartesville.  She is very active in the Washington County Republican Party.  This is her second Convention, her first being in 2004, when she attended as a guest.

Congresswoman Mary Fallin addressed the RNC before 8 p.m., focusing her remarks on lessons learned from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.  Images of the bombing were shown on the screen behind her. 

After her remarks, she joined the delegation on the floor for the rest of the evening’s speeches.

The very first speaker of the evening was Tom Cole, head of the NRCC (the Republican House Conference’s political arm), who delivered about two minutes of remarks regarding why voters should send Republicans to Congress. 

The Oklahoma delegation delivered a nice ovation.  Obviously, it was early, so there were certainly a few empty seats.

Tom got this slot due to his NRCC position, but if they’d have given him 20 minutes to talk about the Presidential race, he would have had the crowd on its feet.  He’s a fantastic speaker.

This is just 1 million less than watched Obama a week ago, and 14 million more than watched Biden.  Wow.

After some DNC bounces rolled in earlier in the week, this is encouraging news for Republicans.  Have to imagine that Palin moved people last night, which would mostly not be reflected in this poll.