Election Night with Mitt Romney

When I woke up Monday morning, I checked my email like I always do and I saw that I received an invitation to Mitt Romney’s Election night event which was going to be held the next day at the Renaissance Hotel in Schaumburg. Tuesday was the Illinois Primary. I never went to anything like this before and I wanted to go especially after having my picture taken with Mitt Romney at the Meet and Greet in Rosemont three days before. But I still hadn’t got my car back from the body shop. So I decided to make a reservation for a car rental the next day. Tuesday morning came and the phone woke me up. “This is the body shop, your car is ready to be picked up,” the girl told me. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I wouldn’t get it for another 3 days yet. I was thrilled. I asked her if they could pick me up. I hurried up, through on some clothes and 10 minutes later the body shop guy picked me up. 

 Now I had my car back. Did that ever feel great. I wasn’t trapped in my apartment anymore. I went home and cancelled my car rental and then got cleaned up. I got back in my car and went over to vote. 

   I got to the Renaissance Hotel at 6:15. They said the doors would open at 6:30. There was already a line waiting to get in. I had no idea how big this election night event would be. This one guy came along and searched anyone with a bag or a purse.  The sliding glass doors opened and we quickly moved forward. Right inside the glass doors were two tables. They checked to see if you were on the list of guests that were invited. I had to show them my photo ID and they put a band around my arm. I walked down the hall to the Schaumburg Ballroom   and looked in. From where I was standing, I could see this big American flag hanging on the back wall. As I walked in, all the cameras and equipment from the media caught my eye. There was so much equipment that they had built a grandstand inside the ballroom to hold everything. I thought it was cool seeing all of the media there. In the ballroom they had a stage and then a walkway out to a podium. They had a fence surrounding the walkway and the podium and the people started to take up their places around the fence to get the best view. I went and sat down on small grandstand which were on both sides of the walkway by the stage. The event wasn’t supposed to start until 8:30. I didn’t feel like standing up that long and I didn’t know how long this event was going to last. I sat there looking around and taking in this experience, “This is awesome. I’ll probably never get to do anything else like this again for the rest of my life,” I thought to myself.  

  More people were starting to fill the ballroom. I got up after a while to look around. I went up to the grandstand where all the cameras and stuff were. In the grandstand I saw Candy Crowley from CNN along with Carl Cameron from Fox news. I had my camera with me so naturally I took pictures of everything that was going on around me. 

Hanging on the wall on either side of the ballroom were two large video screens tuned into Fox news with the election returns that were coming in. As I was standing there, Dan, the guy that was in my booth at the Meet and Greet a few days ago came up to me and said, “Hi.” I was glad to see him but there was so much noise coming from the band that was playing that I wasn’t able to hear anything so he left. Then at 8pm Fox news declared Mitt Romney the winner of the Illinois primary. Holy cow, everybody started cheering as they held up their signs waving them around.

  It wasn’t long after that that some girl came out and started talking. Then State Treasurer Dan Rutherford Chairman of the Illinois Romney campaign came out and introduced Mitt Romney. When Mitt Romney and his wife Ann came out the cheers went up. Everybody was clapping. I got out my camera and videotaped his speech. 

 After he was through, the election night party started to thin out. I stayed and shook hands with Dan Rutherford and then left. It was an awesome night and I was so glad that I got a chance to be there when Mitt Romney won the Illinois primary. The last few days were an experience that I will never forget. Come November, I WILL have that picture of me and President Romney standing together framed!

A Morning With Mitt Romney

March 16th 2012

 I was sitting around my apartment with nothing to do but play around on my computer. My car is in the body shop getting repaired after that accident I had last Saturday so I couldn’t go anywhere. I checked my email like I always do and saw this invitation for a Meet and Greet with Mitt Romney Friday Morning at 6:45 at this restaurant called Pancakes Eggcetera in Rosemont Illinois.  At first I didn’t think much of it but the more I looked at it the more curious I was. I had sent Mitt Romney a message on his Facebook page asking him a question the day before. Anyway at the bottom of the invitation is a place where you send an RSVP telling him if you are coming or not. I found out this invitation was for real.

 Since this Meet and Greet was going to be held at a small little restaurant I got excited because there would only be a small group of people there. “Maybe I can get my picture taken with Mitt,” I thought to myself. But I didn’t have a car though. I remembered that I got my credit card back last year so I decided to see how much it would cost to rent a car.

 “This is crazy. I’ll have to get up at 4 in the morning just to get to the restaurant in time.” I went back and forth about going through all the trouble. I might not even get to see him. Then that night I went to bed and I laid there and thought, “Why not. It would be a once in a life time experience. Go for it. I don’t have anything to lose,” thinking to myself. So the next morning I got on my computer and confirmed my invitation for the Meet and Greet with Mitt Romney.

 4am came this morning and I got up. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. I guess it was because I had something to look forward too, inside of laying around the apartment for a week and a half waiting for my car to be repaired. I had gone ahead and rented a car for 24 hours yesterday afternoon so I was all set to go this morning. I even had a backup plan in case things went wrong with the Meet and Greet. The Rivers Casino in Des Plaines is right down the street. And even if everything went fine with the Meet and Greet, I still had plans on going to the casino afterwards.

 I got to the restaurant at 5:40am. You couldn’t miss it because everything on the block was closed except for this restaurant. It was still dark out as I drove up into this parking garage right next to the restaurant and into this Handicapped parking space. There were police and Secret Service Agents all over the place. One of them even came up to my car and started to tell me to move but once he saw my handicap placard he said, “Your OK, Your fine,” and he walked away. I got out my car and saw how little this restaurant was. “This is going to be cool,” I thought. They hadn’t opened the doors yet and the media with all their cameras and just a few people were waiting outside. Within a few minutes someone came out and told the media that they had to stay on one side of the restaurant and not go over to where the people were going to sit. The cameras were all set up in one spot.

 We all went in then and I looked for a spot to sit at in the front. There were two guys in this one both and I sat down and introduced myself. “Hi, my name is Bill.” The other two smiled and I found out that I was sitting with Jim and a younger guy named Dan. We all hit it off right from the start. Jim got up to see what was going on towards the back of the restaurant. Jim came back and said, “come on, I think it’s better back here.” Sure enough they had all the lights and cameras set up pointing to this one spot in the middle of the floor where there was a platform with a chair on it. Dan, Jim and I sat down in a booth right next to it. We had a perfect view of whatever was about to happen.

  This one guy told us that Mitt would arrive at 7:15am which was about 25 minutes from now. So we sat there talking, taking this all in. The restaurant was filling up and soon we had a young girl named Jenna from the Champaign County Republican Party from down state join us in our booth. She was cute and pretty and excited to be part of this affair. I introduced myself and so did Dan and Jim. While we were all talking, I felt like we had been friends for years.

We all wanted to get our picture taken with Mitt Romney so all four of us agreed to help each other with each other’s camera to get the picture.

 Mitt Romney was right on time just like they said he would. He didn’t look tired or anywhere near what I looked like. He was all smiles and ready to go. First the head of the Republican Party introduced Mitt along with the Mayor. Then he got up on this small platform and sat down in this chair. He had to do a short interview into this one camera and answer some questions.



We didn’t know who he was talking to though and he didn’t tell us. After that he went around the restaurant and shook hands with everybody. Since we were right next to him when he was through talking into the camera, we were one of the first people he came over to. Dan, Jim, Jenna and I all took turns with the cameras making sure we all had a picture taken with Mitt Romney. I got up and said, “Hi, my name is Bill.” “Hi Bill,” Mitt Romney replayed. We put an arm around each other and posed for the picture. He also signed all of our Mitt Romney for president posters. 

When he was through meeting every one of us, Mitt Romney talked about his plans for the country.



Mitt Romney was so nice and personable with everybody in the room. If I had any doubt before on who I wanted for president, those doubts have clearly been erased from my mind. It was an exciting moment and I’m so glad I didn’t stay home and lay around the house.

 After Mitt Romney left he went outside to say hi to the people who were standing outside. They wouldn’t let us leave the restaurant until he was in his car and drove away.

   Now that that was over with, I got in my car and drove down the street to the Rivers Casino. I was about a half hour early so I just sat there in my car and waited until it opened. At 9am I went in and found that they had a $5 craps table and a $10 table. I got my spot at Stick left 1 and bought in. It quickly filled up and I only got the dice once. The table wasn’t as bouncy as I thought. I would call it a medium bouncy table. I asked about that promotion called “On A Roll.” The box lady said that You have to be on the “Fire Bet” and make a least 50 rolls.

  As I was playing the others with a $6, 6 and 8 and $5 in the field, I could see this other guy at the $10 table playing with all orange pumpkin chips. He was playing $1,000 on the pass line with full 20x odds. They might have even let him go more than that at times. I saw him go through $500K in about 20 minutes. Then they opened the 12 footer for him and it became a private table. What can I say when I see someone losing that kind of money, sigh. By this time I had made +$53. I was getting tired and all I wanted to do was to go back to bed. I had made enough to pay for my car rental so I was happier then hell. The Big Bettor was still losing when I left the casino.

 I got to do all of this today before 10 o’clock this morning and it didn’t cost me anything. What a cool day this has been for me. I’m so glad I took lots of pictures to remember this day. I plan on editing all my pictures and videos together and posting them on YouTube. That will take me a couple of days to do that though. I have to return my car and then go back to sleep and get some rest.

Here are all the photos that I took this morning. I still have to work on the videos which will take me a couple of days yet.

Morning with Mitt Romney Photo Slideshow