Ron Paul


The delegation had breakfast one last time together this morning. 

The delegation heard from Mary Fallin, Tom Cole, Frank Lucas and Jim Inhofe.  Senator Inhofe explained what happened to the roll call last night, which resulted in two votes for Ron Paul accidentally not being cast at that time.  As Michael McNutt reports, the Paul voters took that pretty hard

The delegation also heard from Lynn Windel and Bunny Chambers, who are serving their final day today as National Committeeman and Committeewoman.  Lynn and Bunny have served the party selflessly for many years.

The delegation is wearing their blue blazers with the Oklahoma patch and khaki pants, no tie.

From breakfast, delegates were off again to various functions around the Twin Cities.

Sometime around 11 p.m., rollcall.JPGNational Committeeman Lynn Windel and Senator Jim Inhofe cast Oklahoma’s votes.  They were expected to be 39 for John McCain and 2 for Ron Paul, but ended up being 41 for McCain (more on that in a minute).   Lynn is retiring this week from his position, and Senator Inhofe is Oklahoma’s senior Senator, and he’s up for re-election.

Mick Cornett was standing next to Senator Inhofe and made sure he said “the home of the Oklahoma City Thunder” during the traditional “brag” portion of the vote casting.

The two votes that were expected for Ron Paul were from delegates that had been allocated to Mike Huckabee, and those folks could now legally vote for whoever they wanted.  (See more explanation of delegates here.)

The first time Senator Inhofe got the floor, he passed, as all states at this point were trying to allow Arizona to put McCain over the top.  The second time he got the floor, after McCain had been nominated (noted with “green” confetti on the big screen), Senator Inhofe was mistakenly cut off by the chairwoman, who announced all 41 votes for McCain.   My understanding is that that’s the way it stayed.

Here’s the view from behind Senator Inhofe and company.