A changing of the guard for the GOP

John Ransom

John Ransom, husband of Colorado alternate delegate Kim Ransom, sent in these observations from this week's Republican National Convention:

While Sarah Palin stole the show this week in St. Paul, the more remarkable and more impactful story for party politics is Senator John McCain's transformation from maverick, sometimes-saint, part-time martyr and party-outsider into GOP leader and hero during the convention reverie in St Paul.

No other development so threatens the Democrats chances in this election year, dampening their otherwise fair shot at capturing the White House. Democrats have been relying, in part, on a damaged Republican party to ensure better voter turnout numbers.

With McCain solidifying support this week up north, the Democrats would now unwisely rely on suppressed GOP turnout in order to win.   

"We are on the edge of a history setting campaign," Representative Kevin Lundberg, a member of the Colorado delegation and a sometime McCain critic said prior to the McCain acceptance speech Thursday night, "and it starts right here and right now."

If anything, Thursday night's speech by the Republican nominee further galvanized McCain's support inside the party.

"This is the most exciting place I have ever been," echoed Travis Whitsitt, another member of the Colorado delegation. "It's more exciting than any hockey game."  

By unifying a fractured Republican party, John McCain hopes he can bring to bear a GOP get-out-the-vote operation that has proven more effective than the Democrats in recent national elections.     

Since February, when McCain essentially wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination, the Arizona Senator has done the careful pick and shovel work of building up his support inside an often-skeptical GOP. Yet until the Palin pick electrified party activists, McCain was more often acknowledged by GOP insiders as the inevitable pick rather than the pick that generated excitement for the future of the party.

It is clear however that the week in Minnesota was a changing of the guard for the GOP.

For Republicans, McCain's now fully in charge of this party. And so far the party seems to like it.  

John (Bam) Ransom is a freelance political, financial and sports writer whose work has appeared in The Street.com, NewsMax and the LA Business Journal, among other publications. Contact him via http://www.ransomcreative.com

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