Sarah Palin is in Florida today. In my home town no less. She'll be appearing at some private function and fundraisers in Naples, and will address a capacity crowd at Germaine Arena in Estero at 2:45 (home of the Everblades, Florida's, maybe even the world's, most awesomely named hockey team! Which is great for her because she is a hockey mom and what not).
The Naples Daily News is live blogging the thing. So far they have details on all the traffic delays Palin's visit is causing. Riveting stuff, you betcha. The Herald also made the trek across Alligator Alley, and will be updating the Naked Politics blogs.
Wait, great nugget from The Daily News: Nick Thompson, some State Rep, said "we are in critical times. We need serious people in office." Poor regular paper people can't make jokes in their live blogs, but that doesn't mean they can't put in some between the lines snarkiness.
I was going to send my mom as a special live blogging correspondent. She types two words a minute, knows nothing about politics, and probably would have just made bizarre comments about Palin's hair, wardrobe and dialect. So basically it would have been the same as if I was there (except slower). Alas she has laryngitis.
Update: Naples Daily News has a live feed of the rally, if anyone wants to watch.
Other local boy observations:
If anyone isn't sure about the politics of SW Florida, let me tell you, it is unabashedly Republican. The bible-thumping stuff doesn't fly with everyone over there, though. Most people lean to the right because of taxes (read: full of super rich old people). So it'll be interesting to see what Palin's speech consists of. If she's smart (well if whoever is pulling her strings is smart) it'll be strong on upper to upper middle class-friendly economics, perks for the olds, Obama bashing, and have less of a social conservative bent. Not to say there aren't plenty of social conservatives in the area, but the common thread to the SW Florida Republican elite is taxes and retiree issues, so there're lots of people with a libertarian bent.
Also, don't expect any "Drill, Baby, Drill" chants. The olds come for the ocean, they don't want any oil rigs ruining the view from their beach mansions.
The district's Representative, Connie Mack IV (who barely lives in the area anymore, and married California Congresswoman Mary Bono last year. Yes, he got Cher's leftover's leftovers) is more of a moderate Republican, and has clashed with Bushies in the past. Wait, perfect for the McCain/Palin campaign, because he's a MAVERICK! Except, he has a few actions in the past few years to back it up, and it's not just an empty campaign catch phrase.
I was a member of the high school band, mainly because I got to go to Europe twice. They're playing at the campaign stop. I probably would have gone, but played purposefully wrong notes -... oh wait I played wrong notes, purposefully or not, all the time. At least the band director noted that they'd be glad to play a Biden event too. She was only the asst. band director when I was there. The guy before her is in jail for sexin' a 13 year old boy. For the record he made it clear he voted for Bush.
Palin also made an appearance at a $10,000 a plate luncheon fund raiser at the house of Jack Donahue earlier. I've got no dirt on the guy. I'd call up my Mom, who always has dirt on everybody, but, again, laryngitis. Anyway, here's a link to a picture of the guy's house.
