David Holt from the Republican Convention NewsOK.com Blogging Community

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.”

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

And another.

Here’s another pic I took.

She was funny, intelligent, thoughtful, sincere and persuasive.

The audience was beside itself, welcoming her with a 5-minute ovation and following with many more.

Expectations had been sky-high, and Sarah Palin had exceeded them.  The speech was an instant classic, and you could tell just by looking at our faces that those of us in attendance were thinking to ourselves “I’m watching history.”

I spoke to many delegates afterwards.  Almost every conversation was the same:

Me: “What did you think?”

Them: (visible catching of breath)  “Oh my gosh, that was the greatest speech I’ve ever seen.”

Perhaps folks were just caught up in the moment, but it was really, really good.  In five days, Sarah Palin had completed her rise from anonymous governor to rock star, and you knew the political universe would never be the same.

I can’t imagine any political leader in modern times has gone from obscurity to the most anticipated RNC speech in decades in less than one week. 

These people love Sarah Palin, and they cannot wait to let her know.  And in a few hours, they will get their chance.  The flood of emotions will likely be incredible. 

And the Northeast media’s arrogant and sexist treatment of this accomplished American governor has outraged people here, and I suspect, Americans everywhere.  As usual, their best efforts are backfiring, but this may take the cake.  The net effect here has been a massive increase in support for Palin, which seemed hard to imagine since Republicans were practically dancing in the streets the day she was announced. 

I could be wrong, but I think the roof is gonna come off the Xcel Center tonight.  With what we got to see of her last Friday, it’s hard to imagine that tonight’s performance won’t solidify her status as a superstar.

Sunday afternoon, RNC leadership announced that Senator McCain was scaling back Monday’s session to simply the “must do” business of the Convention.  This is the right thing to do, and fits with his character, but it does mean the apparent cancellation of Congressman Tom Cole’s Monday speech (unless it gets rescheduled to later in the week).

Delegates don’t seem to be that shaken up about the scheduling changes.  Most headed over to an all-delegate party at the Minneapolis Convention Center tonight.  I think everyone understands it’s the right thing to do, and I think they’re still hopeful that Gustav will not cause the devastation of Katrina, though no one can say what will happen.

CNN’s new poll appears to confirm Zogby’s read - even after the DNC, it’s still basically a tie. 

That will fire up delegates this week.

Women are, and have always been, a critical constituency amongst Republican activists, especially in Oklahoma.

Just as two local examples, RNC delegate Pam Pollard serves as Oklahoma County Chair, and RNC alternate delegate Cheryl Williams serves as Oklahoma Vice Chair.  And there isn’t a more active organization within the Republican Party (at least here in Oklahoma) than the Federation of Republican Women.  

So that being said, it’s quite fitting that the first female Vice President of the United States may very well be a Republican. 

And if the overwhelmingly positive response to the pick of Sarah Palin is any indication, that may indeed come to pass.  Here’s Michael McNutt’s coverage of the Oklahoma reaction, including from the aforementioned Cheryl Williams.

The energy today is amazing.  I think it’s safe to say that every Oklahoma delegate’s enthusiasm for next week’s events just increased by an order of magnitude.  I know mine has.

As an aside, I’ve had hundreds of conversations over the last six months with people from all over the country regarding who might be McCain’s V.P. pick.  And only ONE person ever even mentioned Sarah Palin.  So I have to give credit to Jeff Cloud, a man ahead of his time.