And I can’t just NOT tell you about this one… because I think it is by far the most important aspect of RS ’09 and the one that you NEED, nay REQUIRE knowledge regarding in order to truly understand what happened there.

Let me give you the backstory to both build anticipation and make me giggle while I realize that you are mentally groaning and saying “get on with it!”  If you look at my profile, you’ll see that I’ve been a member here for 3 years and 7 months.  I’ve been lurking for a while longer than that, as is true for people who eventually joined most sites around the time.

Unlike the Facebooks, Twitters and Myspaces of the now, 3-4 years ago, you lurked a site until you realized that you might want to tie yourself to it in any way.  The potential that the extension of the site to yourself connection was strong and could be found favorable/unfavorable, depending on who viewed it, was a strong deterrent those days.  But I digress.  As you knew I would.  (See above anticipation)

I came around here for a man.

Yep.  I’m one of those.  I’m not generally politically inclined, but my husband was fascinated with this new site he’d found and he would write things in a way that I’d never heard him speak.  If I wanted to hear that, well, and keep an eye on him, I needed to see what was going on here.  So, here I am.

Nowadays, I’m rarely here.  I work part-time at a job I love.  I’m a doctoral student and full-time mom.  I blog on my own (NOT about politics, because that’s his gig and frankly, I’m sick of arguing with the dude), and there are other life things that happen as well.

But I want to tell you the little secret from this weekend, as well as the reason that I come back to stir the pot every now and then.  The reason why my husband’s been on Redstate for 4 1/2 years and loves this site and it’s people so much.  It’s the reason why I know most of the contributors and many of the readers on a personal level.  It’s why this weekend was a true success, beyond amazing speakers, and an awesome hotel (well done, CH).

Redstate.com went beyond just being a website.  For the people who have been here a long time or a short time and are growing on us and us on them, it’s become a *gasp* family.

Yep, I said it.

This weekend was amazing because people who genuinely care about one another and are passionate about a topic met and it was pure fireworks.  Chemistry of the best kind.  People I’ve known for years attempted to give me a handshake.  For that, they got glared at and pulled into a full-body hug.  Sorry to those that are uncomfortable with touching.  In my family, we’re down with contact.

I finally met people that I’ve laughed with, cried with, prayed for, thought about through pregnancies, births, sicknesses and deaths.  I mourned the loss of my friend, Mark Kilmer, with a pierced heart this weekend.  Don’t for one minute fool yourself into believing that people you meet on a website aren’t real.

This is all very, very real.  Your connections here are real.  For those of us that attended RS ’09, they are now forged, cemented and faces are put to names.  I watched avatars come to life in a surreal way.

The secret of the weekend was in the people and it was pure magic.  I’m exhausted in the best of ways.  I think it’s time for another nap.

Today, while driving around the Nashville area, a predominantly conservative part of the country, I counted no less than 17 pro-Obama stickers. I attribute this to the free “get your FREE bumper stickers supporting Barack Obama” that Facebook has been shoving in my face thanks to moveon.org. What I want to know is why Facebook isn’t shoving John McCain bumper stickers in my face?

My guess is that the McCain campaign doesn’t have anyone footing the bill for said free bumper stickers, which probably tells me a lot.

What the American people want is clear: WE WANT FREEBIES. That’s right. It’s the reason we’re willing to support a universal health-care plan, even if it’s a sub-par one. We want our free bumper stickers, our free t-shirts our great big CHANGE and all the fall-out be danged. We want our everybody share everything programs, and the people that trained so hard in those medical fields quit because they get paid peanuts quit, and our brand new socialist society…wait, did I actually say that?

You get where I’m going with this. I’m disappointed because I feel like people are so quick to get caught up in the hype. I hear so much that I am “such a sheep” because of my moral beliefs and then I see people that will jump for someone like Obama and I have to wonder what all of it means. I want people to question why they are voting for someone. Do they actually understand why they support Obama? Does he actually stand for anything or is he just a charismatic leader? If all it takes is a charismatic leader to lead a country, then any cult leader would do. We need more action and less talk.

I’m just frustrated by what I perceive to be a lack of understanding of the process. We don’t need someone who is untested. I want metal that has been through fire before it supports me and my car over water, not thin, bright shiny metal that may be weak in spots. It may be pretty, but when push comes to shove, it’s going to fall and I’m going to fall with it.

To say I have trepidation about the upcoming election is to put it mildly.