St. Paul, MN at the Xcel Energy Center
September 1 thru 4, 2008

Story and photos by Pat Krause

The opening day of the convention was shortened by a few hours because of Hurricane Gustav. John McCain felt they no one should party while Americans were suffering because of the storm.

As it turned out the Convention had to be started on Monday as there was a quorum of delegates present by Party law. On Tuesday, however, after good news about the storm, the party got into full swing, it was by past standards low key when compared to the glitz of the Democratic Convention. More than 15,000 members of the world media came from all over the US and dozens of foreign countries. Major VIP's of the Republican Party were on hand to witness the days events. Former President George Herbert Walker Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush arrived to a standing ovation. Rudy Guiliani, Mitt Romney, Norm Coleman and Joe Lieberman were among the speakers at the event.

Top TV and news media from all the major networks were there reporting on all of the convention  events. Anderson Cooper, Peter Jennings, Katie Curic, Wolfe Blitzer were among the many newspersons. The current First Lady Laura Bush spoke twice as did Cindy McCain. President Bush was unable to attend because of duties relating to Hurricane Gustav however, he did present a speech via televised cable.

There were a number of celebrates and entertainers performed for the delegates, they included Trace Adkins, Gretchen Wilson, John Rich from "Big & Rich", Cowboy Troy and every evening Jazz musician Al Williams played while the delegates entered the arena. Several different musical groups lead the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. One of these group was a made up of  VFW members from Minnesota.

The Republican delegates absolutely went wild when John McCain and Sarah Palin went to the podium. It was only after several minutes of applause that they could begin to give their speeches.

On the final evening thousands of balloons were released and glided soundlessly in a blur of color from the ceiling. I myself, was literally standing head to foot in a mass of these balloons. At one point they were over my head and I was unable to move for a while until people began popping the balloons. Confetti also rained down along with the balloons. Clearly, it was bedlam for a short time. I feel very fortunate to have been able to photograph this convention. Luckily, for me I was still vacationing in Minnesota at this time.

To see more of Pat Krause's photos of the Republican National Convention, click here.