The Redhunter

Other presidential hopefulls giving speeches this day were Sen Sam Brownback (KS) and Rep Tom Tancredo (CO). Given all of the other things that were going on at CPAC, I decided to head out. I'm not happy with Brownback over his opposition to send more troops to Iraq, and although I know a lot of conservatives love him, my opinion of Tancredo is a bit different.

One of the best things about CPAC were the number of authors present who did book signings. Most of them also gave presentations or were part of panels too. One author I particularly wanted to meet was Michelle Malkin. So I headed down to the general exibit area where I picked up one of her latest works; Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild.

She was nice enough to pose for a photo for anyone who wanted one. When her assistant had trouble making my camera work at first, she offered the use of her camera and said she'd email me the photo. Very gracious (and thoughtful that she had one ready), I thought.

Speaking of unhinged, and I wasn't there when this happened, Malkin wrote on her blog that "Two punks from The Nation with a camera stopped by my book signing to ambush me about In Defense of Internment. Have they bothered to read the book? No. I look forward to their butchering of my comments and the predictable unhinged reaction. "

The second presidential hopeful who spoke on Day 2 was Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. He started off well enough, telling a few funny stories about him and the Clintons. Good humor and personality, he hit all the right buttons during his speech. Obliquely refering to the Clinton's fixation on polls and focus groups, he said that we should not elect thermometers as leaders. Rather, he said, we should elect thermostats, people who could guide opinion.

He said he would sign Grover Norquist's pledge not to raise taxes, which I do not think is a good idea. Don't get me wrong, I'm a low-tax kind of guy. I just don't think a pledge is the way to campaign and it sounds gimmicky.

His speech also went on for too long, turning into a laundry list at the end. One thing I'll give Duncan Hunter, he was short and to the point. Huckabee did well, I just wish he had ended sooner.

One of the most encouraging things about CPAC were the number of young people there. There were a lot of students from all around the country, and the bulk of the attendees seemed to be in their 20s and 30s.

Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association was there, and gave a very good presentation. As with Inhofe, he showed videos of him sparing with CNN news anchors, including one in which he (correctly as it turned out) accused them of faking a news story. A forceful speaker, he makes the NRA case well.

George Will introducted Rudy Giulianiwho drew the largest crowd of anyone so far at CPAC. The room was packed and they had to limit entrance to the hall, so some people had to watch in the hallway. Will reminded everyone that in the 60s and 70s it had become convention wisdom that New York City was "ungovernable". The place was going downhill fast, and Giuliani did the seemingly impossible; he reduced both crime and welfare roles.

In general Giuliani gave a very good speech. Oddly, he seemed to take a few minutes to get going, as if he started cold or hadn't psyched himself up beforehand. But after a few minutes he found his tempo and did very well from them on. He is an inspring leader, and someone I'd want in charge during a national security crisis.

Everyone knows that conservatives are suspicious of him on social issues, and he dealt with it the best way possible; with humor and charm. He said that that yes we don't agree on everything, but "I disagree with myself sometimes"

America has the right ideas, he said. Peace through strength.

He also said that we made a mistake in calling it the "War on Terror". It's not our war on them, but their war on us. The war will be over when they stop planning to come over here and kill us. Me: Rudy is dead right. And anyone who thinks that getting out of Iraq will change anything is deluded.

He gently criticized President Clinton for treating terrorism as a criminal matter, mentioning the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. However, that's all hindsight.
"I don't blame people for not seeing it build(in the 90s)", he said. "But I do blame people for not seeing it after 9-11." Here here.

Democrats want to go back to a 90's way of dealing with terrorism, and it simply won't work.

He said that the way to fight terrorism domestically was to do it like he went after the Mafia when he was a prosecutor in NYC. "No one walked in our office to tell us about the Gambino crime family, we had to go out and look for them." He talked about using the "Al Capone" approach; once you know who the criminals are you prosecute them for spitting on that sidewalk if that's all you can get them on.

After Giuliani I headed out again for other seminars or book signings.

Unfortunately, getting back into the main room for the next two stars was not to be so easily. A victim of it's own success, a lot more people signed up for CPAC this year (6300) that the organizers had anticipated, so not everyone could fit into one room at once.

I got back in line but didn't make it in to see Mitt Romney. The scene outside the ballroom was an absolute madhouse

The line entrance to the main room was at the bottom right of these stairs, and the line went for some distance behind me. Due I'm sure to fire regulations, they could only let a certain number of people into the room, and they did it by counting seats. When someone left, or the ushers identified an empty seat, they let people in.

I was still in the hall when Mitt Romney gave his speech, but the organizers thoughtfully had a TV and speakers in the hall so I heard it perfectly fine. I'd never heard him before, so wasn't quite sure what to expect.

It turned out he did a very good job and I can see why he is a front runner. He combined knowledge of the issues with humor and charm. He spoke about efficient government, but concentrated most of the time on social issues, where he has been accused of being a flip-flopper (as it was, there were anti-Romney people handing out little flipflops, and a guy in a dolphin suit was there too).

Forceful and dynamic throughout, he started by bringing his wife on stage with him and ended with a rousing "God bless the United States of America!"

As with every other presidential candidate, he brought up Ronald Reagan as an inspiration. It's impossible to overestimate the influence he has on the conservative movement. He spent some of his time talking economics, and about his record in Massachusetts. He bashed Ted Kennedy, which as you might suspect went over well with the crowd.

Probably because he has been accused of flip-flopping on social issues, he spent a lot of his time talking about them. He talked about traditional values, the sanctity of life, and preserving marriage as being between one man and one women. He said that McCain-Feingold needs to be repealed, and that there must be no amnesty for illegal aliens.

Next was the rock star herself, Ann Coulter. I was let into the room and got to a seat seconds before she went on stage. The young people in the room went wild, as she is obviously a hero to the college kids

Ann is certainly quite a speaker. Most of her "speech" was a series of one-liners. Here are a few as I wrote them down (not going to be literally accurate)

Here is how liberals think:

Global warming is a moral issue. Not like, say abortion.

Nuclear power is bad. Unless the Iranians are pursuing it*

Al Gore has inspired me to save energy. Whenever I see him on TV, I turn it off

Obama is half white and half black. Bill Clinton is half white and half trash

Then Ann did what she does too often; she went too far

I was going to comment on John Edwards, but if you mention the word faggot you go to rehab

Unlike with her previous comments, this time the laughter was quite muted. I didn't like what she said, andMichelle Malkin didn't like it either. There's no excuse for saying things like that, and all she does is hand ammunition to the left.

Unlike any other speaker, she devoted at least half of her time to Q & A. Most of the questioners were college kids, and Coulter loved the give and take with the crowd. Her thinking is lightning fast, where with me I always think of the clever retort about 10 minutes too late. Like Malkin, she was ambused by the same punk from the leftist mag The Nation. She handled him perfectly, by making fun of him and not directly answering his question.

She also made a point of saying that she was not anti-gay, just anti-gay marriage. It won't do you any good, Ann. To hard-core liberals the two are equal.

* I actually had a leftist tell me this once. Scroll through this post.

I did a quick check of a few leftie blogs and they're all over the Coulter comment. It's tempting to think that if we excluded Coulter from our ranks entirely we wouldn't have the problem of leftist idiots using her comments against us, but the reality is that if it wasn't her they'd go after someone else. Exorcise her from the conservative movement if you want but the left thinks that Newt Gingrich is a hatemonger so you just can't care what they think. The left demands perfection from conservatives, but frankly they've got so many nutcases in their ranks that it's laughable for them criticize us.

Myself, I'm in agreement with Malkin. Coulter isn't my type of conservative. She oughtn't be invited to CPAC next year.

Anyway...

After CPAC was done (I didn't attend the evening dinner) it was time to head over to Walter Reed for our weekly pro-troops rally. Although I was about dog-tired, it wasn't that far away and it's the least I can do for our troops. Fortunately it wasn't that windy so we got the MOAB up