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Remember Colleen Shoemaker? She was the tearful Obamacare foe whose plea to get her country back was featured on our cover in August 2009 and on a video we posted that went viral and hit national TV.

She was celebrating the Republican Party takeover of the Arkansas legislature at the GOP victory party last night, if not four more years of Barack Obama.

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Cheree Franco talked to her last night in this color story on the Republican scene at the Embassy Suites in western Little Rock.

Doyle Webb estimated attendance of 400 (based on pre-registration). At the bar, they were serving up complimentary vodka and cranberry juice, the“red” special. The first song I heard is an elevator version of “Girl from Ipanema.” I was reminded of my friend’s sweet but dumb dog — my friend always hums “Girl from Ipanema” and says she thinks that’s what’s going on in his head at all times.

Early in the night, I spoke with Colleen Shoemaker from Bauxite — the woman we used on the cover.

I asked her what happened that day at the town hall meeting (which was at Ark. Children’s Hospital and was entirely about Obamacare).

“When I got up there to talk, I was so emotional, all I can remember saying is, ‘I want my America back.’” This was her first time to come out to the big Republican party. “I’m really rooting for Romney,” she said. “There have been a lot of us praying, every night, 7 o’clock, all around the country for 40 days. We all hooked up on the internet.” The site is teapartypatriots.org.

“One thing I hope is if Mitt Romney wins, the Republican establishment will be more conservative than they are now. We’re all a little unhappy with the old guard…John Boehner, for one, I would love to see him voted out of the speaker of the house…he just doesn’t get it.”

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