August 25, 2008 05:14 AM UTC

My Arrival in St. Paul for the GOP Convention

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• by: gopstudent

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Polsters, I was fortunate enough to come to be given a position as a professional volunteer at the RNC in St. Paul.  I will give periodic updates from the convention over the next two weeks.  Here is my first…

Already I have been reminded of why I so love my country and why I chose to pursue a life in politics in the first place.  Upon arrival into Minneapolis Airport, I boarded a cab to the Crown Plaza Hotel in St. Paul.  My cab driver’s name was Ali Osman and he has lived all but the last nine of his 35 or so years in Mogadishu, Somalia.  After a brief conversation about my business in town with the convention, I inquired into his origin.  I was excited to hear that he was from Somalia and immediately engaged him in a conversation about the state of Somalia and his opinion of US foreign policy in the region.

Ali told me how happy everybody was to see the United States come to Somalia.  He described to me the abject poverty and unstoppable disease that plagued the failed nation state prior to US intervention.  He said that once the US arrived everything drastically improved.  He told me that before, there was no food.  After, there was food and aid.  Though he hasn’t been back to Somalia in nine years, Ali says that things in Mogadishu are as bad as ever and that ever since the US pulled out conditions have deteriorated to the point of complete disaster and all out war.  This is not uncommon knowledge to most of us, but it is especially relevant coming from a man who has lived this nightmare.

After talking with Ali I realized that the only motivation for a political career of any sort should be completely unselfish.  There are so many problems in the world and right here in America.  The people deserve leaders who will fight all forms of tyranny and work to improve the lives of people throughout the world.  This presidential election should be about more than popularity and wit.  It should get down to deepest level of policy and preparedness to lead.  We must elect a leader who is able to stand tall on the international stage and defend freedom.  We deserve nothing less.