Marathon Pundit: Blogging from St. Louis: Respublica and Stix

Both Diane of Respublica and Julia of Stix attended a debate watching party at Chaifetz Arena on the campus of St. Louis University--the home of the Billekins.

Diane took a lot of pictures of the festivities occuring in the Gateway City yesterday.

Click here and start scrolling.

Diane left this comment on one of my debate posts from last night:

We went to the Chaifetz Arena on the campus of St Louis University to watch the debate with 10,000 others and the reaction to Palin was like watching your team win the super bowl. Even Joe Biden found himself grinning like a guy with a big crush on a girl who finally said 'hello' to him.

Then when it ended, Sarah Palin and her family came to the arena, drove up to the main floor in their huge bus. It was 'out of this world' fun. You can't fake a reaction like the one she received, so, yes, the focus groups did give her the nod no matter how tepid the vaunted political panels would like to say otherwise.

Julie had a camera too, and here is part of her analysis:

Major observation – there were LOTS of young women there – high school & college age, 20s, 30s – in bunches. Many were there right from work in dresses and high heels – or else they dressed up on purpose? The older women were mostly with husbands or families. A fair number of very young daughters were brought by their moms. [Afterwards I saw a mom helping her daughter pick out a Sarah button – she was so starry-eyed] Otherwise, it was the kind of crowd you'd see at a ball game. The late-comers were dressed more casually – from the suburbs, I guess. A few really freaky looking people; a nice cross section, but only a few minorities. A protester with a sign on a big piece of pink cloth had the sign snatched by a student – who was cheered mightily as the protester was led out. We noticed that Piper moved closer to stand by her dad after that. I think it helped Sarah to have her family with her. Her parents looked really stunned by the whole thing. I don't think they were at the convention, so the whole thing was a new experience for them.