MINNEAPOLIS -- Oregon’s delegation to the Republican National Convention was dazzled by vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s (R-Alaska) speech in St. Paul on Wednesday.

“I absolutely was thrilled,” Oregon Republican Party Chairman Vance Day said Thursday morning. “I got back to my hotel room last night at about 2:15 and I stayed up another hour just to watch the speech again.”

The Alaska governor’s speech was the talk of Thursday’s breakfast among delegation members, who said that she delivered a historic speech. Even former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas), who was speaking to the Oregon delegation Thursday morning, believed the Republican Party has found its future leader.

“We in the Republican Party have, you know how the song goes, been looking for love in all the wrong places,” Armey told the delegates. “We’ve all been looking for a new Ronald Reagan, and I woke up this morning thinking, ‘Wait a minute, does the new Ronald Reagan wear a skirt?’”

There has been no official word as to if Palin or presidential candidate John McCain will be visiting the Beaver State this fall.