Cheney receives a warm Aloha in Hawaii

I had the chance to see Vice President Cheney tonight at the Honolulu Convention Center. This is the first time since Nixon that a Republican ticket has come to Hawaii to campaign, so this was an event Hawaii Republicans werent going to miss.

Im no expert at judging crowd sizes, but if I had to guess I would say there was at least 10,000 people in attendance. Ive gotta think thats an awesome turnout for an 11:00 PM speech on a Sunday night. The line was wrapping around the convention center by 9:30. Ive doubted the existance of a strong Republican presence on the islands, but I was proven terribly wrong tonight. As far as enthusiasm goes, this crowd was pumped! They were cheering for Cheney as though he was on the top of the ticket.

The speech itself was Cheney's stump speech with a few additional lines to make it more relevant to Hawaiians. The longest applause lines were on topics of national defense. But the loudest and most fervent reponse he got was when he said "we are a nation under God, and we should be allowed to say so" - THE CROWD WENT NUTS! Judging by the response I think the stealth issue of this election will be the respect of America's religious values.

I am college student in Hawaii from the mainland, so Im actually registered to vote in my home state of New Jersey. Thinking Hawaii was a lost cause for Bush/Cheney, I sent out my absentee ballot 3 weeks ago with some hope that New Jersey could swing to Bush. Now Im thinking Hawaii could go Bush too. With the race so tight in NJ and HI how can the Kerry/Edwards campaign be so confident in the midwest?

Final thought: The national race cant be as close as its made out to be.