Note from Aakash (10/5/08): I am only tangentially involved in campus affairs right now, so my awareness of what is going on, with respect to all of that, is often only indirect... The new leaders of the UIS College Republicans should be posting here soon.


Updates, and the Vice-President Debate
In St. Louis, to see Governor Sarah Palin beat Senator Joe Biden
Quite a few things have happened, even in the short time since I last posted. At least week's College Republicans meeting, the new UIS CR Executive Board created and appointed four new positions. One of those is Web/Com - After having so many experiences, from Sangamon County, to other parts of Illinois (Springfield to Chicago), to elsewhere in the Midwest (Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Minnesota again, Missouri again (!!!!)** etc..., to Washington, D.C., multiple times***, and having plenty of photos from these national, regional, and local events, as well as some video clips, including newscasts on which we were featured, it has been very frustrating not having them compiled, in a display-sharing format - especially since there are now so many widely-used services, that do this for you (Flickr, YouTube, Picasa, Google Video, etc...). We hope to have new web pages and recap compilations up soon.


** When I was Chairman in the Fall 2004 semester (the last time we had a presidential election), I remembered us attending the rallies (through Illinois "Victory 2004") in St. Louis, surrounding the Bush-Kerry debate. When I heard the news about another upcoming debate there, this time around, I thought we should look into possibilities, regarding rallies and attendance at the historic Vice-Presidential Debate, between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden.

Early this week, I received notice, from Jeremy Hagen (Chairman of the statewide Missouri College Republicans organization [MOCR]), of the three events planned for Thursday, surrounding this debate. There would be a rally for Governor Palin near the debate site (Washington University in St. Louis), followed by the huge Debate Watching Party, at Chaifetz Arena in Saint Louis University (SLU), at which 10,000 people were expected, and after which Governor Sarah Palin would be speaking to us.

Despite the uncertainty of ticket availability (that's why no all-group e-mail was sent out), and despite these events being during work and class times, we made arrangments the prior day (Wednesday) - as well as on Thursday morning - and attended these fun and exciting events. Those UIS College Republicans who were able to attend, and for whom we obtained tickets, included myself, Matt Mau, Braxton Denton, Ryan Melchin, Lexi Kirschbaum, Kelsey Quinn, and Ryan Roth.

Matt and Braxton were admitted into the Debate itself (at Washington University in St. Louis) and Lexi and Kelsey got to be on the Arena floor, right in front of the podium, when Governor Palin gave her exciting and motivational Post-Debate Rally address. (That was preceded by a talented country singer [trying to find the name - It sounded like "Sarah Maran"... But we weren't sure exactly], and then, the actual "Straight Talk Express" bus drove into the arena!!)




I am going to try to make the trip to campus right now, for the remainder of this evening's Homecoming events. [Our entries in the 2008 UIS Homecoming Parade had to be cancelled, as probably did the other political-related* entries, due to very-unfortunate - and very troubling!! - developments... Though that is a topic for another time (though that time will likely have to come soon, due to the problems our crazy Governor continues to cause everyone)... It's neat to see F.I.R.E., the ACLU, the Obama supporters, and the Republicans all on the same side, though!] Our new College Republicans Chairman, Brandon Guiliano, will be sworn in as Vice-President of the Student Government Association at the University of Illinois at Springfild (UIS SGA) at halftime, during the Homecoming game.

*Update (10/05/08): I should have said "campaign-related" parade entries... I am not on campus much, nor that involved in university affairs anymore, but from what I have heard, there were political candidates and issues represented in the Parade. However, I do not know of any campaign organizations that had entries, like was done in prior years. (And the College Republicans did not "drop out" of the Parade... Our members were planning to walk in the entries for the candidate campaigns, but those entries had to be cancelled yesterday morning, due to the controversy regarding Governor Blagojevich.)

I hope that we have some recaps, photos, and video posted here soon, regarding our recent experiences in Saint Louis... and perhaps some commentary and analysis of the VP Debate itself as well. I am sorry I was not able to post much, in the way of recaps, regarding our experiences at the Republican National Convention, a month ago, in St. Paul, Minnesota. We hope to have those services mentioned above (photo and video sharing) implemented soon.


*** Unlike last year (when we almost did, but didn't), we will have a delegation this time, at the "Defending the American Dream" Summit, in Washington, D.C., later this month. This will be our organizations 10th trip to the Washington, D.C. area within about a four-year time period.

www.DefendingTheDream.org