I made my way down from Tallahassee to Tampa on Sunday, August 26 for the Republican National Convention and the many surrounding events. This was a fitting day for tens of thousands of conservative patriots and the entire political universe to descend on Florida for August 26 is the birthday of my good friend, Christian Cámara aka Reaganista.

My colleague Joe Russo and I ran into Christian randomly at a barbecue joint in Chiefland, Florida, half way down to Tampa. Later in the evening we joined Reaganista at the Convention Welcome Reception held at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg (on the field where the Tampa Bay Rays play). Christian was able to celebrate his birthday with Republican delegates from every state in our union.

And as an added bonus, earlier in the day the Republican Party of Florida board voted to make Reaganista and 28 other Floridians Romney Electors–as in the electoral college. Talk about a unique birthday gift!

We then continued celebrating with Reaganista and hundreds of our friends in the Florida political and public policy world over at the great “Full Lid” after party, also held in St. Pete. It was especially fun to mingle with Florida and national media, where several of us took the opportunity to set the record straight regarding the #backstabber Charlie Crist.

As our beautiful state of Florida hosts the 2012 Republican National Convention, it was only fitting that we kicked it off on the birthday of one our state’s greatest patriots.

Cheers to Reaganista! Happy birthday!  –Your Friend, Francisco González.