Go Candi!

We were so thrilled on Monday night to watch our friend and fellow church member Candi Schmieder speaking at the Democratic National Convention. Seriously - how crazy is it that our friend from small-town Iowa was addressing thousands of people in the convention hall, and millions at home watching?!? We were bummed to see that CNN did not show her speech, but instead had their political team discussing things. Argh! However, we were still able to watch her speech on C-Span. Here is a link to read the 3-minute speech that she gave. Go to http://www.demconvention.com/candi-schmeider/ to read the speech. Even though the website says that you can watch the speech, the video is of Ted Kennedy's speech. (I've been told that you can go somewhere online and see the speech, but I have yet to find it...) Candi was in the group of speakers that were right before Michelle Obama. Here's what the convention hall looked like when Michelle spoke - just to give you a little flavor for what a big deal it was for Candi to speak there...

Candi was heavily involved in campaigning here in Iowa, and she had the chance to meet Barack and Michelle (yes, we are totally on a first-name basis with the Obamas!) Candi and her daughter introduced Barack at a rally that we went to in Williamsburg back in late December. So we can say that we were in a room with only 100-200 other people, including the (hopefully) next president of the United States. Ummmm, you can't tell my bias, can you?!? Regardless of your political point of view, though, you have to admit that it is rather incredible that she was asked to speak there.