After getting off work on Sunday, in McMinnville (Four 12 hr workdays, 5am to 5pm) I had second thoughts about going to Vegas, I was exhausted, I didn’t want to go to the airport and get patted down by our friendly TSA. On my drive home back to Tualatin, it was raining, cold & nasty. With gloomy clouds and traffic. Then all of a sudden, I looked up ahead and there was the Ron Paul Yamhill meetup group with their signs and rain gear standing at the Dundee stoplight (Dundee only has one stoplight). These guys were soaked, smiling, and waving!!! I honked my horn like a madman, pulled over, and cheered them on. I was re-energized! I'm going to Vegas dammit! These guys were standing in the rain on a cold Sunday night and I was feeling "too tired" to get on a plane? I had no excuse left at all! At a minimal cost I could help raise money for our efforts in Portland in Vegas!

By the time I checked into my hotel it was past 1 am (time difference there) and I crashed with dreams of Teaparty'07 blasting through 10 million and past it!!

PRIVATE LUNCH WITH RON PAUL

Monday started with a lunch with Ron Paul at a private Vegas Meetup resident's house. When I got there the buffet was setup and tables in the backyard were ready to go, podium for speeches and everything. The Vegas meetup group has got over 500 members and the host did an awesome job. I meet folks from New York, Florida, Texas and Los Angeles who had come to Vegas for the meet & greet. This says a lot about his supporters, are we a travel-loving bunch or what?

We listened to Mr. Greenspan talk, no, not Alan, this guy is the new campaign coordinator for the Southwest. He informed us how the first mock Republican caucus held this weekend was swamped with Paulites and basically got the same reaction from the State GOP people as we did in Portland Straw Poll: Where'd all these RP People come from? WOW!!!!

Ron Paul's flight was running late due to weather so we ate and listened to some other meetup speak about plans for NV and so forth. Exciting stuff going on here in Nevada! I'll have to elaborate more on this later.

An hour late but in good spirits the group of 120 or so attendants welcomed Dr. Paul with a standing ovation. During his stump speech I canvassed the grounds to get autographs of all of his staff on my signs. I got Lew Moore's, Jeff's and some other guys signatures on the "Dr. Ron Paul Cured My Apathy" signs (two of them).

After his speech everyone stood in line to shake hands while his campaign staff had some lunch on the go, they were so surprised I asked for their autograph! These guys put in long, long, long hours and a lot of miles without complaints, I admire their commitment. During the line for handshakes and picture taking, I got Dr. Paul to autograph our signs. I got a picture of him signing them too! The hostess of the event was excited to hear about my idea for the signs and how we were going to use them for fund raising.

THE RALLY

Dr. Paul was running late to the rally, which was held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas auditorium. So he took off and about 30 cars followed him. Upon arriving at the rally, I noticed how the campus was decked out with Ron Paul dings and R3volution signs. I gave testimony in front of a local news camera and also in front of a meetup guy who is making a video collage of thousands of supporters’ 10-second clips on “Why I love Ron Paul”.

Seating capacity was 1800 and about 1700 people packed the auditorium. Intro was a young lady with a beautiful voice singing the Star Spangled Banner and it was so beautifully sung I spotted folks around me starting to tear up a bit. Intro speech was by Mr. Greenspan, no not Alan, and when Dr. Paul took the stage the auditorium was pandemonium of signs waving and cheers for a couple of minutes of almost 2000 people cheering him on! It was crazy!!! WOW!

What surprised me the most about the rally was THE MEDIA PRESENCE. There was a row of seats with at least 5 news cameras, and there was a team of Vegas meetup guys there with very professional-looking equipment to capture the event. After his speech, they announced that Dr. Paul meet anyone who wished to shake his hand and get a photo taken. I never usually use this expression but OMG! 400-500 people lined up and waited over an hour! I wasn’t up for all that waiting so I talked with Lew Moore a bit about strategy and South America and then went outside. Another OMG! Four news vans parked outside with lamps set up, cameras and news presenters sending out their reports to the local evening news. ABC, FOX local, and others! I went back inside and shared my discovery as the line continued to grow. At the front desk people were lining up to register Republican, I spoke to a newspaper guy from somewhere in Florida and he said his story would be published if/when the registration tally broke 100 total. At that time the Vegas meetup had registered 60-65 and signed up a dozen more as volunteers to become delegates!

As I was video taping all the folks in line waiting I turned around and there was Tucker Carlson, speaking to all the young Paulateers from the meetup! He was attentively writing down comments and taping their answers. I stuck around for a bit and he was asking some really good questions, I hope he airs them!!!

“DR. RON PAUL CURED MY APATHY” and Vegas’ too!
I cannot put into words the attention that I got and the feelings I experienced while toting our “apathy” sign around the private event and the rally. During the rally I stood in the reception of the auditorium and the whole time I was there people came up to me with comments like:

“He cured mine too!”

“I love that sign”

“We love your sign”

“It’s autographed!!?” "I’ll buy it", he offered me a Liberty Dollar, and I was tempted! Going for $200+ on eBay now!

“That sign is so TRUE! Where do I get one?”

“Where can I buy one?”

“Are you the apathy sign guy, who follows Ron to his Events?” I said, “No that would be Scott Sutton” whose photo is famous and coined the phrase, I believe."

We all went outside and stood on some steps that were in front of the auditorium, facing the parked vans of the media reporters. About 60 -80 people joined in shouting “Ron Paul” to the vans as the newscasters tried to film their reports over all our noise…something like “Who’s gonna save the Constitution?” “RON PAUL!”…”Who’s gonna end the WAR?” “RON PAUL!” The media was surprised. It was an impromptu rally taken to the streets! (Sidewalk)

THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY TRIP!

A MOMENT I WISH I HAD ON TAPE:
At the very beginning of his rally speech. Dr. Paul said this to the audience, more or less, something like this:
You know, I’ve read signs people are making and a lot of people have been coming up to me saying how I’ve cured their apathy. After the events in November and all that’s been going on, I now can tell them very truly, “Thanks, BUT YOU HAVE CURED ME OF MY SKEPTICISM!"
I’ll let that sink in.
…Another great moment:
…Moreover, he said: All these folks running for office (Congress, Senate, Presidential candidates) are too strict and controlling, all their signs look the same. Our signs spell out the message of Liberty, of Freedom and reflect what the people of America want!” APPLAUSE!!!

OK. MANUEL WRAP IT UP

To wrap things up, I closed out my Vegas trip with an incredible incident. As I was typing the first paragraph of this report, the waiter at the airport lounge saw my RP2008 button and came up to me and asked. “So do you think the taxes on tips will be eliminated”, “Do you think he’ll win?” I was stunned; I didn’t even have a change to pull out my tax tips flyer! My waiter was informing me how there was an article in yesterday’s newspaper about Dr. Paul’s tax on tips proposal. My jaw dropped, he said they also copied it and posted it in the break room! WOW! I gave him flyers and as I was leaving the bartender came up to me and asked me for some more flyers!

Ok. So as I finish typing this I’m sitting on the plane back to Portland. They upgraded me to business class by surprise, I never asked for it! I guess Ron Paul brought me good luck, it’s a good pay off for coming out to Vegas and having to miss the Paving the Way event on Sunday. I can’t help but wait patiently for the miles to go by, get back home, go canvassing, get to the brigades on the freeway rain or shine, and deliver my signs with autographs to the one meetup group that has made Ron Paul signs a crucial centerpiece of the R3volution!

CHEERS TO ALL!

Manuel
P.S. Thanks Yamhill meetup, you folks made me arrive in Vegas with a big smile and lots of HOPE!

Ron Paul Takes The Stage In Vegas