Here I sit in beautiful, downtown Minneapolis some 1300 miles from the nearest Douglas fir.  I am told there is some sort of convention in the Twin Cities tomorrow (a little self deprecating humor). But the number of local Minnesotans who do not know about the convention, who aren't helping and who aren't being helpful is precisely zero. Someone, somewhere in these two cities has this place cleaned up, spruced up and tuned up. 

Businesses are pulling together.  Hotels, shopping malls, (well, mall "singular" since the Mall of America is the largest in America) and taxi drivers are doing a land office business, but they're doing it together and with a smile. Even the airport and the airlines, (ok yes, this is Northwest Airlines central hub and corporate digs) are putting on the dog with a mostly on time takeoff from SEA and a five minute early arrival at MSP. TSA was out in force at the airport actually being helpful, diligent and efficient. And between TSA and the local police the only "issue" was quietly solved as a passenger was escorted off the aircraft without fanfare when his too loud mouth revealed that he would have had to have a liquor license to give blood. 

Everywhere are new, red hanging banners welcoming us to Minneapolis-St Paul or the Twin Cities. Everyone got NEW hotel key cards yesterday, sponsored by Qwest, all red. And I am getting not just clean towels every day, but brand new ones. Yes, these are small things,  but they are coordinated small things. I sense the fine tuning of motivated Chambers of Commerce.

But wait, there's more!

The amount of trash along the freeway, around the airport and in the streets of the city center is precisely equal to the number of Minnesotans who don't know about the Republican convention tomorrow: zero. There is no construction equipment evident along the major thoroughfares and all city streets are open and free flowing. The city halls of both cities and the state government operated together to lift the normal 2AM bar closure time since the convention actually operates on a 10PM daily quitting time. Now I'm not much of a drinker, but I am impressed at the level to which government is assisting and coordinating with business to make the 2008 Republican National Convention a success - and the level to which those governments are NOT tooting their own horn. 

Maybe it's because they are still a bit scared. City fathers are not judged by how well they keep open the bars or how well the sewage systems work (except Seattle's Bright$$$water, but that's a different story) but how well their emergency management, dike engineering, and police systems work in protecting our right to peaceably assemble (does WTO ring a bell).  We will be able to judge those facets of Minnesota in the next 3-4 days.

As I understand it from local sources and media, "Twin cities" and "working together" do not normally appear in the same sentence. But they seem to be pulling it off. Even more revealing, these two cities are the heart of the DFL, the Democrat Farmer-Labor Party (the Minnesota name for the Democrat Party). This was home to V-P and Presidential Candidate HHH (Hubert Horatio Humphrey for you youngsters), the happy warrior, big government personified and a former mayor of Minneapolis. We are in the belly of the beast - but one who is hell bent on showing off its cities in a good light and assisting businesses in making this a great REPUBLICAN convention.  This is not Nancy Pelosi's or Obama's Democrat Party.

Ok, they convinced me. While I will not vote for the DFL nominee for President or for MN Senator (geez! Al Franken!? You gotta be kidding me); I will trade their Mayors and city councils for Seattle's, even double their salaries and not complain.  Seattle would get much cleaner - literally and figuratively.

I will admit there are negatives to MSP that city halls have not been able to fix; the dreadful shortfall of the aforementioned Douglas fir, for example, and the virtually unlimited flatness.  I mean, where are the mountains and the foothills?  Where is the convergence zone? Where is salt water? Geez, the only thing taller than a one story building around here is a two-story building.   At least when Steve Pool talks about low double digit winter temperatures, he doesn't have to use a minus sign every day for weeks.

In the final analysis, it's a pleasure to be at the Republican Convention. It is a pleasure to drink coffee and beer with Washingtonians (and Alaskans!!) who speak, think and talk about less tax, small government, pro-military and pro-business issues. And it is a pleasure to be in Minneapolis and St Paul because Minnesotans seem to be just like Washingtonians.  They smile at you on the street. They look you in the eye and say hello or give you a secret McCain thumbs up (remember this is a blue town) and whisper: Go Sarah!  

We may be perfect strangers, but we are Americans all. 

Michelle Obama, are you listening? We can be proud of this America.