GOLDEN — 10:10 a.m. JI: That does it for our live blog from Jefferson County this morning.
Keep an eye on and for additional news on Palin’s visit and coverage of Democrat Barack Obama’s visits today to Grand Junction and Pueblo.
10:07 a.m. JI: Sarah Palin has left the building. So have most of the supporters who showed up to hear her speak. Let the traffic jams getting out of here begin.
10:00 a.m. JI: Palin is still shaking hands with supporters. The crowd has dispersed quite a bit, but a few stalwarts have crowded near the stage to get a better look.
9:50 a.m. JI: Palin has finished speaking, closing her remarks by saying, “On Nov. 4, let’s elect John McCain the next president of the United States.”
9:42 a.m. JI: Here’s something new. Palin says she and John McCain have decided what she would focus on as vice president. “My mission is going to be energy security and government reform. It’s going to be helping families who have special needs, and I will push for innovative cures to diseases.”
Palin says she will support McCain’s “all-of-the-above” energy policy and name-checks the National Renewable Energy Lab near here to say they will be committed to renewable energy.
On government reform: “In Alaska, we put the state checkbook online so that everybody can see where there money went.”
It’s the kind of down-to-earth idea that makes Palin supporters swoon. One man shouts out, “Yeah Sarah!” after the line.
9:36 a.m. JI: Palin is back to the familiar script now, with such lines as, “There are some candidates who use change to promote their careers and some candidates who use their careers to promote change,” and “On that bridge to nowhere, I did tell Congress ‘Thanks but no thanks.’ If we wanted a bridge up there, we were going to build it ourselves.”
The crowd cheers wildly.
Numerous pundits have criticized Palin for continuing to repeat the claim on the “bridge to nowhere,” saying that Palin was initially for the bridge and only turned against it after the political climate around it changed.
9:34 a.m. JI: A protester in the back of the arena is shouting “You’re not qualified!” as Palin speaks. The McCain-Palin supporters around her quickly chant, “USA! USA!” to drown her out.
9:28 a.m. JI: Palin on the Wall Street crisis: “This crisis is an issue of real concern, not only for those in our financial markets but everyone across this country.”
“I’m glad to see that in this case the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have said no to using taxpayer money for a bailout.”
“Our regulatory system is outdated and it needs a complete overhaul. The watchman has been asleep at the switch, and management at Wall Street has not run these copmpanies responsibily. … John McCain and I, we’re going to put an end to the mismanagement and the abuses on Wall Street. We’re going to reform the way Wall Street does business, and we’re going to stop multi-million dollar payouts and golden parachutes to CEO’s who break the public trust.”
9:28 a.m. JI: Palin is now speaking. “I’d like to thank Gov. Owens for that kind introduction. It’s great to be here in beautiful Golden, Colorado.”
9:26 a.m. JI: Owens: “You can’t learn a lot about Colorado and the Western U.S. from a textbook. … You learn about the West by living here. That’s why I’m, so proud of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Friends, we won’t need to educate John McCain and Sarah Palin.”
9:22 a.m. JI: Palin, her husband, Todd, and former Gov. Bill Owens take the stage. It’s showtime in JeffCo.
9:17 a.m. ED: A few dozen protesters stayed outside the Westernaires horse arena until the bulk of the crowd made it indoors. They left around 9 a.m. The only incident, organizer Michelle Wolf said, was an elderly man grabbing one of their signs, “Pro-family, Anti-Palin,” and throwing it in the dirt.
9:01 a.m. JI: Caplis: “The next vice president of the United States is in the house!”
Ear-splitting cheers.
He says she will be introduced by “the greatest governor in the history of Colorado, Bill Owens.” But she will wait to go on until after President Bush talks about today’s Wall Street calamity during a news conference scheduled to start shortly.
Will Palin speak to the crisis during her remarks?
8:57 a.m. JI: The crowd is really starting to pile in now, and it’s getting a little claustrophobic on the other side of the barricades. Dan Caplis tells the crowd that Palin is minutes away and that she has her husband, Todd, with her. Huge cheer.
And while we’re at it, a big welcome to the travelling press who have just joined us here on press row. You always know when the travelling press shows up because the WiFi crashes.
8:54 a.m. ED: Betsy Plemons, 16, came from Cheyenne, Wyo., with her father to hear Palin.
“I was going to be a theater major. After I heard her speak,” Plemons said of Palin, “I decided to go into political science.”
Noel Maberry, 48, of Denver, said he has no problem voting her to be next in line for the presidency and credits her with putting the “zing” in McCain’s candidacy.
“She’s a breath of fresh air,” Maberry said. “She’s feisty. She’s nice. She’s got her act together.”
8:44 a.m. JI: Say this about the McCain campaign event organizers: They know how to cross-promote. State Rep. Ken Summers, R-Lakewood, gave the invocation this morning. Mary Lynn Wagner, a Republican candidate for state House of Representatives, sang the national anthem. And Libby Szabo, another Republican House candidate, just spoke, drawing big cheers when she called herself a “soccer mom.”
8:39 a.m. JI: Dan Caplis, our emcee for the morning, has taken the stage again.
“There are those in this election who like to use the slogan, ‘Yes, we can,'” he says in a not-so-veiled reference to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. “But you look at their actions and the ‘we’ doesn’t seem to include half our population. One of John McCain’s great gifts to America is, ‘Yes women can.'”
Caplis then leads the crowd in chants of “Yes women can.”
“We’ve all known that ever since we were born,” Caplis says. “It’s just now a woman is going to be given a fair chance to serve in the White House.”
8:35 a.m. JI: A sampling of signs and T-shirts from around the arena:
-We (heart) Sarah
-Teens 4 Palin
-Taxpayers 4 McCain
-Soccer moms 4 Palin
-And, most confusingly, a T-shirt that reads, “Lipstick Republican for Parah Salin.” The woman wearing it has a broken arm in a sling.
8:30 a.m. JI: Another country singer is now warming up the crowd, which has begun clapping along. The music seems somehow fitting given that the venue for the rally — the Westernaires Arena — normally hosts horse shows and has a dirt floor. The singer is now launching into “God Bless the USA.”
“Now I know y’all know the words,” he says.
Audience members hold up “McCain-Palin” signs.
8:26 a.m. ED:
About 70 protesters calling themselves Women Against Palin showed up shortly after 8, smiling at crowd chatter and holding signs that read, “Mamas for Obama” and “You’re no Hillary.”.
“Some men are trying to start a fight with us, but we’re not having it,” said organizer Michelle Wolf.
8:13 a.m. JI: If some of these posts have an on-the-outside-looking-in quality to them, well, that’s because the media is being kept apart from the crowd behind barricades. We’ve been told we can’t walk through the crowd and talk to people. The few people who are getting interviewed are leaning up against the barricades. One family has now been interviewed at least three times by various reporters depseparately seeking color.
8:12 a.m. JI: A country singer is now warming up the crowd, which is still fairly small inside as people wait outside to clear security. Minutes again, radio host Dan Caplis — serving as the emcee for the event just as he did for the McCain-Palin rally in Colorado Springs several days ago — took the stage. “Are you ready to fight for John McCain?” he shouted. Small roar. “Are you ready to fight for Sarah Palin?” he shouted. Bigger roar.
8:03 a.m. ED: Alyssa Sudermann, 21, said she showed up because Palin “has the strength to be who she is. I want to hear her firsthand and not just get the media sound bytes.”
Her mother, 44-year-old Tracie Sudermann, whose youngest is 5-month-old Joseph, said she feels she has much in common with the 44-year-old Alaskan governor.
“She goes against the grain of the typical political figure,” Tracie Sudermann said.
She also likes her strong pro-life stance.
“I don’t think he’d be here,” she said pointing to her 5-month-old son, “if I weren’t strongly pro-life.”
7:52 a.m. JI: Some protesters trying to hold a counter-rally outside the Palin event say they are running late, stuck in traffic.
7:46 a.m. John Ingold Palin supporters filing into the rally are bright-eyed despite the early hour. Sound system is playing old standby crowd music like “Highway to the Danger Zone” and “Life is a Highway.”
7:23 a.m. Electa Draper – A staffer reinforces that no pancakes will be served this morning (that plan was scrapped Friday because tables needed to be moved out to make room for more people). Traffic is beginning to back up.
7:08 a.m Curtis Hubbard: Good Morning and welcome to our live blog from Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s visit to Jefferson County.
The Alaska Gov. is making her second appearance in Colorado in nine days, this time at the Westernaires arena at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds (She and Sen. John McCain appeared in Colorado Springs on Sept. 6).
This morning’s program is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., and Palin’s appearance is slated for 9 a.m.
Check with us regularly for updates.
