By Chris Lanier, Republican National Convention delegate

Today our Convention adventures began in earnest! This afternoon we went to a screening of the new movie “An American Carol” by director David Zucker. Some 3,000 convention delegates and guests had the thrill of seeing one of the movie's first showings and its stars in person. In Hollywood premier fashion, hundreds of bags of popcorn, candies and cold drinks where wheeled in for viewers. Of course, no Republicans would be invited to a real Hollywood premier.

It is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Kelsey Grammer as the Ghost of Gen. George Patton haunts leftist anti-American filmmaker, Michael Malone (make that Michael Moore — the name was changed to protect the guilty) who wants to end the 4th of July. When Democrat Icon, President John F. Kennedy, slaps Michael Malone for his anti-war protesting, the crowd roared!

“Pay any price, bear any burden” sounds awfully Republican these days.

I won't spoil the ending. I do have on my black Michael Malone “S” ballcap and “Dress Up Little Liberal” card, complete with his own soapbox, “Abolish the 4th of July” placard, “Move Along.com” shirt and “S” cap. No liberal would be complete without a “bleeding heart.” “An American Carol” will be in theaters everywhere Oct. 3.

Following the movie, we went straight into the Convention Welcome Party. I've been to two inaugural balls, and this was far better than both put together. The food was first class with rounds of roast beef with croissants, cream cheese asparagus wraps, pastry puffs, cheeses of every variety, olives stuffed with pimento and garlic, Greek peppers, cookies, cappuccino cheese cakes, artichoke hearts, ham, turkey, and more that I probably missed; trying one of everything was impossible. Then there were Walleye cakes. OK, so maybe I'll try those later, when I am sufficiently fortified. I hear they are really good — maybe it is just the name of that fish.

The purveyors of political paraphernalia were plentiful — they make and sell things with the GOP icon, elephants, and Republican figures that you would never imagine. If it's elephants ... its here. I'm sure similar some of the same companies were in Denver showing their donkeys!

We met up with several of our Tennessee friends including state House GOP Leader Jason Mumpower and his wife, state Executive Committee Member Oscar Brock, Tennessee Women's Federation Chairwoman Shirley Ward and other delegation members and guest such as Tim Gossett, Randy Fairbanks and Christopher Hopkins. I e-mailed my college friend, Bill Lacy, who was Fred Thompson's campaign manager, but he did not make it up. He runs the Bob Dole Institute at the University of Kansas.

The folks here in Minnesota have been a joy to meet and are as friendly to talk with as anyone down home. To get to the movie (which was before the Tennessee bus left the hotel) we rode the shuttle to the Mall of America, made a quick turn to the left to get to the East Entrance (I do try to avoid going left when possible) and then boarded the light rail train to downtown Minneapolis. It is a long way from the mall to the downtown area. The $1.50 per person one-way fare was a bargain. The train was a six, make that eight block walk from the convention center. Aside from seeing much of the city we would have otherwise missed, we got a good perspective of life in Minneapolis.

On our ride, we struck up a good conversation with an African-American gentleman in his late 40s or early 50s. He told us all about what this area has to offer in terms of business, recreation, education and tourist sites. It turned out he has relatives in Covington, Tenn., near Memphis. He had visited there last year and was very impressed with how Tennessee has advanced since his previous visit some 29 years ago. He owns/runs two apartment buildings in Minneapolis. He noted that America needs to manufacture more of its own goods, grow more of its own food and people need to obtain a better education and have a better work ethic. We never talked party politics or about the convention, but he is concerned about the same things we are and shares many of the same ideas about solutions. I think that by talking with people as individuals and focusing on their interests and concerns and finding creative solutions that work, we can make this a better nation and be past the things that have previously divided us. His stop came up too fast; he was taking two floor fans to the local VA hospital. We need to all be more like him.

We are all concerned about Hurricane Gustav. Events Monday have been minimized. While we will miss seeing President Bush and Vice President Cheney, the folks in the Gulf Coast area need them more than we do. We have great governors like Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, Haley Barbour in Mississippi, and Rick Perry in Texas who will do what needs to be done with prior proper planning — their leadership will minimize the losses. Hopefully, it has been learned that in this kind of situation, we are ultimately responsible for ourselves and our own families — even with the best governors and political leaders, government can't do it all and what it does do is probably not going to be very timely, efficient, or truly helpful. We all hope and pray that Gustav reduces in force and changes directions to reduce chances of loss of life and property.