David at RNC: McCain's good man, gave good speech

David McKee, 15, of Waxhaw, ends two weeks of convention attendance as a participant with the Junior Statesmen of America. He attended the Democratic National Convention in Denver last week and the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., this week. Here's his final dispatch to the Observer:

"I listened to John McCain's speech last night. In charecter, I think he is a good man. He gave a good speech, and I respect what he's been through. However I think he has changed a lot of his positions to please the right wing of his party. And therefore, I don't feel that he is what's best for our country.

"There are a lot of people here giving away free swag. I have picked up a lot of cool stuff. The best was when a Coke lobbyist came to talk to us. She used to be a member of Junior Statesmen of America when she was in high school - just like me. Now she works as a lobbyiist in Washington on behalf of Coke. She spoke to our group and asked what was Coke's recycling goal? One guy guessed 30 percent. Wrong. I guessed 100percent, and that is right. I ended up with a cool Coke hat.

"I have been working with Current TV to help them do a piece on younger attendees at the convention. Orginally they were going to interview me, but that day I opted to go to the Ron Paul Rally for America, and they were interviewing at the RNC. They did interview four teens from our group. However they failed to get waivers from them so that they could use the footage. The producer had my card, so they contacted me and I helped them get waivers from three of the four people interviewed. Current TV may give me producer credit on the piece. I met with the reporter and he gave me a DVD about what the world thinks of America as a thank-you present. We plan to keep in touch.

"Our JSA speakers' program brought in Nancy Theis, Director of White House Correspondence. She says she volunteers to go through all the letters that come to the president. She says she sends the "best" to the president's secretary to get a reply. "You know, the sick and dying kids type," she said. She said that she is a die hard conservative, and would never have worked for the Clintons.

"I am going home. I can't wait. I look forward to seeing my dogs, and chilling out. I plan on doing a recap of both conventions for next week."