David Holt from the Republican Convention NewsOK.com Blogging Community

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.

Tom Cole’s Monday night speech that wasn’t has been revived for tonight’s session.   He’ll go on about 6 p.m. 

And Mary Fallin’s speech will go on as previously planned.  She will speak just before 8 p.m.

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.

The repercussions of Monday’s cancellation are continuing to be felt.  Mayor Cornett became the third Oklahoman to lose his Convention speaking slot today, joining previous cancellations for Congressman Cole and Senator Coburn. 

This has evolved into kind of a bummer of a week for the Oklahoman delegation, after the pre-Convention hype of getting to see four Oklahomans on the dais.  Only one is now left – Mary Fallin.  I assume at this point we won’t know her status until tomorrow morning.

The disappoinment is greatest for Oklahoma City, because Mayor Cornett was going to have the opportunity to brag on us a little bit, and the accomplishment of being the only sitting Mayor on the agenda was historic for OKC.  But, it is what it  is. 

This morning, we had breakfast again at the hotel.  We had two speakers, Ron Kessler and Congressman Tom Cole.

Ron came at my invitation.  He’s a friend of mine who has authored numerous bestselling books and is a featured writer for Newsmax Magazine.  He spoke about how effectively President Bush has kept America safe since 9/11, and he talked about the contrasting approaches McCain and Obama have towards the War on Terror.

Tom delivered wide-ranging remarks in his usual eloquence, and echoed some of Ron’s statements about the value of the President’s leadership in the War on Terror.  He kicked up the red meat a notch, pointing out that if Obama is qualified to be President after being a state senator just four years ago that a sitting governor is certainly OVERqualified to be Vice President.

The delegation, hospitable as always, greeted both speakers with standing ovations. 

Ron arranged for everyone to receive a complimentary copy of the latest edition of Newsmax. 

Today, the delegates are wearing their blue blazers with an Oklahoma patch, khaki pants and white shirts.

The delegates are now off to various different functions, including a Vets for Freedom event this afternoon in St. Paul featuring newly-elected Oklahoma State Senator Steve Russell.  The event is at 1:30 p.m. at the St. Paul Union Depot.

This afternoon at 3:30 p.m., most of the delegates will also be off to a party hosted by Mayor Cornett for American mayors and local officials at the Landmark Center in St. Paul.

And finally, RNC leaders just announced that the show will go on tonight, with slight adjustments. 

The Oklahoma delegation met for breakfast this morning at 8 a.m. and heard from a veritable army of McCain campaign surrogates.

 We heard from the following:

Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R-NM), introduced by Mary Fallin

Former RNC Chair and former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman

Former Senator and Governor and now Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne

Tom Kirk, a POW with John McCain

Andy McCain, who was the son of Carol, John’s first wife, from a previous marriage, and then John adopted him, and now Andy serves as CFO for Cindy McCain’s company

Also, National Committeeman for Oklahoma Lynn Windel spoke regarding his and Bunny Chambers’ experience on the Platform Committee.  They cut the platform this year from 42,000 words to 21,000.

Also, every delegate received a personal letter from Congressman Tom Cole.

Today, the delegates are wearing matching red polos.

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.