Mildly rested and restored, I headed back into the maw of the beast, eager to discover what today's events would present to me. I spent the majority of the morning listening to speakers (broken up a bit by a trip around the convention looking for promising photo ops, of which I found a few). The first panel I sat in on was actually pretty interesting, because the panelists spent the majority of their time talking about what the right has to do (and subsequently prevent the left from doing) in order to gain a noticed advantage in future elections--most notably the upcoming midterm elections.

I almost felt as if I was a fly on the wall during the team strategizing of the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup, essentially being told how to get a leg up on the right--I definitely took an out of control amount of notes on that one. For all you Dems out there, I'll say this: Get organized, make yourselves heard, and begin pushing in all areas, major cities and otherwise. To paraphrase panelist John Gizzi, "Districts people never looked at are quickly becoming more important in elections, because voter turnout is key and these districts, with proper campaigning, can be strong allies." The word is turnout. Go.

Also, call me crazy, but I'm still convinced of my "tie knot leaning to the right" subliminal conspiracy theory--ok, maybe I'm not totally convinced, but it is a weird pattern. Anyway, something that several of the panelists were continuously bringing up was the nominations of John Roberts and Sam Alito to the Supreme Court. I don't think it's an exaggeration when I say that I struggled to join in on the overwhelming applause that took place each time this was mentioned. The panel also contained quite a bit of Daschle bashing, which (although I thought most of it was pretty inane and strictly in the interest of getting a laugh) was a nice change from the target practice focused on Sen. Hillary Clinton I experienced yesterday.

The overwhelming opinion I got from this panel was, however, that conservatives seem worried. If the left is waiting to strike when iron is hot, now is the time.

After the panel ended, I got my first meeting with Jessie Jane Duff who was SUPER PUMPED to be talking to the crowd about getting Condoleezza Rice nominated and elected as president in '08--which will happen, coincidentally, right after the USDA releases their new "flying pig" technology. It'll be a crazy year. When Mrs. Duff (who, did I mention, was SUPER PUMPED?) Was finished, I ducked out to head for the exhibit hall and get some pictures. On my way there, I heard an older gentleman say something I thought would be worth sharing: "Anyone who was connected with Clinton is just as responsible for 9/11 as Clinton was." Seriously folks, you can't make this stuff up.

I took the opportunity during the panel on intellectual property rights (and how other countries are scamming their way to strong economies) and headed back down to the exhibit hall for pictures. Ostrich lady, you're famous!

The rest of the afternoon should be pretty exciting--more to come…