Well, the truth is I spoke with the Sheriff for about 15 minutes. I wasn't really asked to speak at the podium and there wasn't a public Q&A session. The picture of me at the podium was just a joke. I'm a nobody.
I didn't hold any punches talking with Sheriff Joe. I started by telling him I am 100% behind him on the immigration issue and I told him he holds a unique position in that both the police and the average Joe hold him in high esteem.
Then I said "Once you finish exposing this Obama birthplace scam, I think you are in a position to work on another problem that is just as dangerous as his fraud on this country".
"I don't know if exposing Obama is going to help or not, but what are you talking about?" he asked.
I said, "When I was a child in Tennessee I was taught that the police are here to help us. Many of my own family members were in law enforcement and very few ever had anything bad to say about them, even the bad guys. But these days my 10 year old daughter is scared to death of the police. She's seen her mother in tears from being yelled at and berated for going 15 mph over the speed limit and seen them turn the tables on people who have called for help. People are shot here almost on a weekly basis and just recently in Colorado the picture of an officer pointing a 12 gauge shotgun at a boy about her age was staring at her from her computer screen."
He replied. "Things aren't like they were when I was on the street" (I immediately thought he was going to make some excuse about how the criminals are armed better now or more aggressive or some other BS - but he didn't.....) He continued, "Now the cops all have degrees and masters degrees and they think they're better than everybody else. In my day we knew how to use common sense and use our own judgement to do the right thing, but now none of them want to make any decisions and they just want to do everything by the book and that's why we weren't going around shooting everybody back in my day and it's happening all over the place now.".
Wow.
I asked "How do we fix it?"
He said "I don't know."
I went on and told him about my uncle who is the same age as he (80) and we talked about the people in jail who haven't been convicted yet and he seemed to be inline with my own beliefs far closer than I ever imagined he would be. We talked about Buford Pusser in Tennessee and about immigration.
Honestly I may have actually found another cop I like.
I only spoke for a minute or two with Roger Hedgecock about the Wisconsin recall vote.
I spoke with Wayne Allyn Root for about 5 minutes about homeschooling. His daughter was homeschooled and has now finished at Harvard and is going to Oxford next semester.
I just said hello and shook hands with Orrin Hatch. He's ok, but I think just about anybody who's been in congress for a while should just resign and let somebody else take over.
I did spend a lot of time speaking with local politicians. That floating around and socializing got us invited to eat at the table of the event hosts and some candidates for office including congress. I bonded with the the libertarian candidate for congress in my district, but he doesn't have a chance this time around.
I praised the NRA rep for helping to expand open carry and concealed carry over the past few years, but raised hell with them for allowing them to strip the rights of all ex felons no matter what they've done and showed them how opening that crack has now allowed them to strip rights from every guy who has a girlfriend who accuses him of domestic violence whether he did it or not. (That was a tense one)
There were probably 300-400 people at the convention. BUT NOT ONE SINGLE NEWS OUTLET was present. My phone ran out of juice halfway through.
Here is Fayth getting her signed pink underwear from Sheriff Joe.
