I thought I’d do a photo dump… not that I have much to dump… I didn’t get any pictures of Governor Sarah Palin (sorry!), and you can see why by the photo below:

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That was the view from bloggers row.  She was in and out of the hall as well so didn’t get a chance to get up close.  I did find one lucky person who happened to be at the right place at the right time as she was leaving, and I’m shamelessly lifting Ryan Collmeyer’s picture here:

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Behind the Governor is Iowa GOP chair Matt Strawn, one of my friends, Isaiah McGee, volunteered at the event and was able to hang out with Todd Palin by their car and had a chance to meet Governor Palin briefly as she was leaving.

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Above we have former Gubernatorial candidate, Rod Roberts, and his wife Trish.

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And these are the people I have to hang out with.  Pictured here are Al Bregar of Iowa Defense Alliance and Grant Young of Questions, Comments and Insults.  Art Smith of The Conservative Reader and Craig Robinson of The Iowa Republican were being too prissy to get their photo taken and didn’t want a bad photo posted online.  Ok, I just made that up.

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Another reason I don’t have a lot pictures is that I’m absolutely horrible at it.  Next time I’m bringing my daughter to be my photographer.  I decided I shouldn’t complain about my seat, because behind the camera platform sat the media.  I could at least see the stage from my vantage point.

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Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa 5th) and yours truly.  In case you are wondering yes I have braces, and yes I hate to smile now.  Just two more years… and I’ll be rid of the things.  Congressman King and I had a brief chat where he said it was good to put a face to Caffeinated Thoughts.  Looking at the picture above I can’t see why that would be good 😉

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Congressman Tom Latham (R-Iowa 4th) and hey it’s me again.  I think this post has set the record for most pictures of me.  I hate posting pictures of myself, but here you go.  Congressman Latham looks thrilled to be there doesn’t he?

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Senator Chuck Grassley talking with some constituents, the line was too long to get a picture with him.  He’s a popular guy and yesterday was his birthday – 77-years-old.  Governor Palin wished him a Happy Birthday during her speech.

Well a photojournalist I’m not.

I also spoke with our Lt. Governor candidate, State Senator Kim Reynolds, who is a huge Sarah Palin fan, and also talked with Brenna Findley, our candidate for Attorney General of Iowa who was also given a shout out by Governor Palin (makes sense since she’s one of two Attorney General candidates that Governor Palin has endorsed).

Update:  Dave Davidson has some excellent photos up here, and you can see all of the pictures he took of the event here.

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