No pix, I'm afraid, but that's just incentive to get a digital camera worthy of the name.

Just a few quick points. First, I got there at 6:30, and most of the seating was already taken. By the time it was over, 18,000 people had shown up, the lawn was mostly full. Contrast that with Kerry holding his event in a high school gym.

Sen. Campbell MC'd the thing, speaking crisply and to the point, and a local group called Mission 19 provided the live entertainment. They've got a good sound, played around a little with the lyrics to their songs, and deserve your support on the road.

State House candidate E.C. Gaffney gave the invocation, and my friend Karen Kataline sang the national anthem brilliantly. Rev. Gaffney is running in a district that was actually well-contested last time around, so he might have a shot.

Pete Coors did speak, and focused mostly on economic, tax, and business issues. I won't say he was inspired - a lot of what he said was stuff that sounded fresh when Reagan was running. And it was clear from his remarks about his family being there "since this whole thing started," that he's not thrilled with campaigning. But he looked and sounded comfortable, didn't stumble or read through his remarks like he did at that first debate back at the NFIB.

Bush is a rock star at these events. The 60-year-old woman sitting next to me, who had driven in from Grand Junction just for this event, was jumping up and down like a bobby-soxer at the Ed Sulivan show in 1964. While he spent most of his time on defense and terrorism, he did kick up the health-care rhetoric a little. He spent a whole paragraph on Health Savings Accounts, for instance. It's clear that he's trying to push market-based reforms to these programs, and it's an ideological battle I think we can win.

For more, I think the Rocky's Tankersley gets it about right.