DEL.ICIO.USGeorgia Republicans take VP excitement to convention
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, August 29, 2008
Roswell’s Dave McCleary has been volunteering for Republican presidential candidates since 1980.
McCleary, 48, helped Ronald Reagan get elected twice, two men named Bush get elected three times. But he’s never been to a national Republican convention.
Ben Gray/bgray@ajc.com
David McCleary sets up campaign signs in Roswell recently.
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That will change this week.
“I’m so excited, I’m excited about John McCain,” said McCleary, who will get to see McCain accept the GOP nomination as president on Thursday at the convention in St. Paul, Minn.
The 6th District chairman of the Georgia GOP, McCleary will not only get to watch, he’ll get to help. As a Georgia delegate, McCleary will get to cast a vote, too.
He will be one of 72 voting delegates from Georgia, who, along with dozens of alternates, pages, guests and party staff, descend on the Twin Cities this weekend for a four-day extravaganza that culiminates with McCain’s speech on Thursday.
Georgia Delegate Eric Tanenblatt is looking forward to the event. He says McCain’s surprise choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has generated unanticipated level of “buzz and excitement” heading into the convention.
“Now we can really draw the contrast that voters will have between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain,” said Tanenblatt, who is head of governmental affairs for McKenna, Long and Aldridge, an international law firm with offices in Atlanta.
Georgia House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) had most of his impact on the convention in the past few weeks. As a member of the RNC platform committee, Burkhalter chaired a panel that dealt with government reform and spending. The party platform will be considered Monday at the opening session.
The work, Burkhalter said, was “right in the wheelhouse of our party, and an area that will confirm our core principles.”
Burkhalter returns to the Twin Cities this weekend for the convention.
Georgians will have their moments from the convention podium. Retired Air Force Gen. Rick Goddard, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) in November, was given a prime speaking slot on the convention’s first day.
The Warner Robins resident said the opportunity to address the convention has given his campaign a boost and shows that the GOP and the McCain party has high hopes for his bid to unseat Marshall in the race for the central Georgia district.
It’s also a contrast, as Marshall did not attend his party’s convention, held this past week in Denver.
On Tuesday, the Rev. Robert Certain, rector of Marietta’s Episcopal Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, will get, by his estimate, one minute and 45 seconds of fame when he offers the opening invocation to the day’s convention session.
Certain was, like McCain, a Vietnam War POW imprisoned in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton.”
And while Certain was released after 100 days in captivity, McCain was a prisoner for more than five years. Now, Certain said, he’s pleased to be able to be part of McCain’s rise to the nomination.
“It’s a deep honor for me to be asked to participate and to invoke God’s presence in the process of governance,” said Certain, who led and preached at the 2007 memorial services for President Gerald Ford. Certain had served as Ford’s priest at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, Calif., before returning to his native Georgia.
Certain said he will rely on the Episcopal Church’s “The Book of Common Prayer” for guidance.
“I have never been an upfront political guy as a clergyman, because I thought that would offend about half my congregation if I took strong stands about who to vote for,” he said.
He’ll begin, he said, by asking God to bless the country and its leaders and candidates.
“Unlike some of my colleagues in other churches, who will pray for long periods of time, I’m about as succinct and to the point, and then I go away,” Certain joked.
Vincent Russo will be there for however long Certain prays. Russo, 28, is a co-chairman of Georgia Young Professionals for McCain and was lucky to get a guest pass to the convention. While not a delegate, the Atlanta attorney is still tickled to able to be there at all.
“With that many people in one location at the convention, there’s going to be a lot of excitement and buzz about the whole thing,” Russo said.
He backed McCain in the primary, he said, and has been helping with the campaign since early 2007.
“John McCain is the type of person who has shown he is able to work across the aisle to get important issues on the table,” Russo said. “I look at the fact that he tried to tackle the tough issues as a big asset, and that’s important to me.”
Staff writer Jim Tharpe contributed to this report.
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