In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Tuesday night, Romney's ground team in West Virginia was not happy.  Check out this quote from Romney's folks.

"These are the juvenile antics of a morally bankrupt campaign," said John McCutcheon, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign. "They're spoilers who take the responsibility of being Republicans much less seriously than their own personal gratification, to tactically distort the outcome of the vote for fun."

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So I played hooky from my day job as news director because I wanted to witness this historic event.  I attended the convention and helped my co-workers with our coverage.  I posted some raw video I collected with my home video camera to this blog.  It includes an interview with a Huckabee supporter, some soundbites from Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, Huckabee, Paul, etc. along with some interesting video of the vote process in each county.  Check it out if you get a chance.

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Other observations from the convention...

What you don't see: Here's something you don't see at home -- while the candidate or spokesperson is talking, the staff is walking around and making sure the media has some literature talking down the opponent.  McCain's people did this Tuesday as well.  The flyer they handed out talked up John McCain on WV Coal and on the other side was a list of "Flip-Flops" from Mitt Romney.

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Point of Clarification: In my twitter feed today, I mentioned that former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer jumped on something Mitt Romney said in his speech.  Romney mentioned off-hand that he was still hopeful about winning Louisiana.  Roemer pointed out that Louisiana had already made up its mind.  Well, technically, Louisiana's primary is this Saturday.  However, Roemer is right in that, according to media reports, many of Louisiana's Republican leaders have publicly backed McCain.

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Kudos: The GOP Convention organizers get kudos for a media friendly event as they promised -- for the most part.  Our access to the candidates quite frankly stunned me at times.  I didn't dare venture on stage, but one of our photojournalists did and no one minded.  We were allowed to walk anywhere and capture video from anywhere.  WSAZ's Amanda Barren walked right up to Mike Huckabee after his speech and chatted with him. 

I say "for the most part" though, because when the going got tough at the end with the certification of the vote, the media handlers were getting nervous.  I was told to move to the back of the room while the Romney people were pleading their case for a roll call vote.  I was also told the New York Times was asked to leave the area, so I wasn't being singled out.  So, it wasn't 100% media friendly.  Personally, I don't think the Republicans knew what they were in for when they didn't put limitations on me.

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Freudian Slip of the Day: Secretary of State Betty Ireland mentioning that she was the "chief official" of the state, before correcting it that she meant "chief election official."  The slip got some applause and some laughter when the secretary pointed out in her words her "freudian slip."

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Role Reversal: Rod "The Toastman" Blackstone, Assistant Mayor of the city of Charleston, gave opening remarks on behalf of Mayor Danny Jones and got an earful from the crowd.  He's called the "toastman" because he is known as a heckler at the WV Power games who throws toast into the crowd when opposing players strike out.  Tuesday, Blackstone was, somewhat ironically, heckled during his speech.  He told me off stage that was a twist.  Maybe it was also payback!  (Just kidding Rod)  All I know is some former South Atlantic League players are smiling somewhere tonight.

To his credit, Blackstone handled the heckle about "we gave you our two dollars" quite well.  The crowd jabbed Blackstone for the city's 2 dollar a week user fee.  Blackstone quickly responded that it funded the "greatest police force in all of West Virginia."

After Governor Roemer's speech was filled with heckling from the crowd, GOP chairman Dr. Doug McKinney warned the crowd to calm down.

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Comic Relief: More than one county spokesperson struggled with Huckabee's name.  Some kept calling him "Hucklebee."  After a few mispronunciations, one frustrated Huckabee supporter stood up and yelled "It's not Huckleberry.  It's Huckabee!"