Face Time w/McCain and Palin

This Labor Day weekend, we traveled to Pittsburgh for a regional gathering which I used to attend regularly. While we were about an hour away from the hotel, Dad (for both he and Robert were going to be there) called to tell me that a certain political candidate and his running mate were staying in hotel. At first, I thought Obama since I knew he was supposed to be in the area. I was relatively happy with this thought for we could finally give an awesome birthday present (a picture of Ben with Obama) to my father-in-law who is impossible to shop for and an Obama supporter. When Dad said it was McCain, I was ecstatic. Just that morning I had watched McCain's announcement of Palin as his running mate and I immediately liked her.

At noon on Saturday, the Straight Talk Express buses pulled up to the hotel after touring Pittsburgh. Some others from our group were waiting at the end of the hall and Ben and I were able to sneak to the front because Ben is cute and short. He tried to run out into the main hall and was stopped by Secret Service. As you can tell by his face, he wasn't really interested in waiting for McCain. He wanted to return to the game room and finish the game he was playing with Papa Mark. McCain came in and addressed the group front right in front of me. When I couldn't get Ben to come out from behind my legs, I stood up to shake McCain's hand. As I was shaking his hand, Palin came in. He asked if I'd met Palin and introduced her to me. I shook her hand. I believe that McCain's curiosity was picqued by a glimpse of the crayon drawn Presidential symbol on Ben's shirt and he asked what it said. Ben was wearing his "Future Leader...I can do all things through Jesus" t-shirt. Palin asked if Ben was in school yet and tried to get Ben to come out and meet Piper, who was just adorable during her Mom's speech at the convention...you can't script that stuff.

Generally, the group tends to be liberal and athesists. They were already unhappy with McCain before his comings and goings disrupted our gathering. He gave them something else to harp on by asking that that we pray for him and Palin, especially over the next couple of days. A few of them took great pleasure in saying, "Can you BELIEVE he asked us to PRAY for him?" On Sunday, I got tired of hearing it over and over and came out in defense of McCain letting everyone know that he had asked about Ben's shirt, what the shirt said, my cross necklace, and that he probably felt safe in asking for prayer based on his interactions with me because when you're in a group of Christians it's okay to ask for prayer. After that, they either didn't bring it up again or, at least, didn't bring it up around me.

Well, that was my face time with McCain and Palin. All in all, I found them nice and real people. I've loved what they've had to say since and I will be watching all the upcoming debates.