CPAC 2009: Day 1

The first day of CPAC 2009 is now history, and what a kickoff it has been! If you want to go straight to my rundown of today's events, go ahead and scroll down to the next paragraph after this one. But, if not, keep reading...

First, a little bit of runner-up info: My friend, Jed Hutchison and I landed at Baltimore International at about 11:30 yesterday morning, paid the $3.10 to ride the shuttle for 10-15 miles to the Greenbelt, MD Metro stop and bought our 7-day passes for the Metro. We had decided early on not to rent a car this time and it has definitely turned out to be the right judgment call. It is so much simpler to just hop on the Metro and motor all over town than to search agonizingly for parking places everywhere you go in this town. We had lunch at the Arlington Red, Hot & Blue, my favorite Tennessee barbecue joint in the country (there are branches in several states), and by the time we reached the Alexandria Comfort Inn to check in, it was nearly 4:00! We checked in, stowed our bags, then headed out and got back on the Metro. To get to the Omni Shoreham Hotel (where CPAC is held), you ride the Blue Line to the Metro Center stop, which is about 5 blocks due east of the Treasury Building, which sits on the east side of the White House. It was a beautiful evening, probably in the low 50's out, so we walked around the Willard Carlton Hotel, the White House and the Old Executive Office Building, Blair House, Lafayette Square and the Treasury Building, just enjoying the majesty of the epicenter of world power. While peering throught the fence in front of the famed West Wing, we glimpsed Fox News' Wendell Goler reporting live from the White House front lawn, probably on "Special Report with Bret Baier." We finally pulled ourselves away and went back to the Metro, where I spotted a Caribou Coffee shop. I like their coffee better than Starbucks, and we were both feeling weary, but not like sleeping, so we want in to grab some lattes. Our barrista (a young African-American guy with earrings in both ears) spotted Jed's Ann Coulter book and astonished us with effusive praise, "Oh, I LOVE her!" He asked if we were in town for CPAC and said he would be there as well; turned out he was a student at Catholic University. Just goes to show how erroneous stereotypes can be... :) We Metro'ed on over to the Omni where we did our early check-in and were done by 7:00. We hopped back on the Metro, hoping to take in the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Wall, as well. I made the mistake of leading us off the Metro at the Federal Triangle stop, which was not where we were supposed to be, so we walked all over creation before discovering we were completely on the wrong end of town, to my chagrin. Fortunately, Jed didn't hold it against me, although he probably regretted ceding control of the directions to me! After grabbing a sandwich at McDonalds and leaving early because of the muttering, malevolent looking homeless person sitting next to us, we Metro'ed over to the Capitol Building and walked down the street on the South side between the Capitol and the Library of Congress/Supreme Court building. The Capitol at night is something I had never beheld prior to yesterday evening. "Awesome" in the truest sense of the word. We were very weary indeed by this point (I had only slept for 3 hours the night before) so concluded our day's events and headed back to the Comfort Inn. Now to today...

We arrived at the Omni at 9:30 this morning and went straight to the Regency Ballroom, where our first celebrity sighting occurred: Fox News' Carl Cameron was in the Press section getting ready to cover the conference. The Omni is quite large and opulent, with a number of ballrooms, but the Regency is where most of the more well-known speakers at CPAC are heard. Dave Keene, the chairman of the American Conservative Union (which sponsors CPAC) opened the conference with a welcome to all of us at 9:45, and very enthusiastically shared some news that I feel is portentous of very positive things. Keene informed us that at the first CPAC in 1973, the speaker was Ronald Reagan and they managed to attract 125 people. Last year, a historic 7,000 attendees arrived for CPAC 2008, largely because of the presence of 4 leading Presidential candidates: Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney (who, as some of you may recall, astonished those in attendance by using his CPAC speech to withdraw from the race) and yes, John McCain (who is NOT here this year, to no one's great mystification). This year, however, all previous attendance records have been smashed with between 8500 and 9,000 expected to show up for a fine roster of events.

Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner, Jr., introduced Congressman Paul Ryan right on schedule at 10:00. Ryan was on McCain's short list for VP last year, and it was easy to see why. Ryan is only 38 years old, but speaks with authority, as well as historical and political context. I noted with great pleasure that he referenced both The Federalist Papers (Ryan's paraphrase of one of the concepts in the book: "The laws of nature and nature's God are the only sure touchstones of right and wrong")and Frederick Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and not just in passing, either; it was clear that he was well acquainted with the contents. It can only bode well for conservatives if leaders like Ryan are being schooled in the great conservative minds of the past, as well as the Founders. Ryan also iterated a theme that I heard voiced honestly and repeatedly throughout the day, i.e., that Republicans had lost their way, and thus the elections of '06 and '08.

Former UN Ambassador John Bolton was next. The crowd was prepared for red meat and Bolton did not disappoint! He took the crowd on a rollicking tour of Obama's foreign policy, which Bolton does not seem to believe exists, at least in any coherent fashion. Bolton also discussed the threats from China, North Korea (which he called a "functionally criminal state") and Iran. I found several noteworth aspects of Bolton's speech. First, he spoke for a good 30 minutes in a wide-ranging foreign affairs tutorial, with no Teleprompter and seemingly no notes. The guy is brilliant. He also was not hesitant to criticize Bush administration policy, although his tone was a bit gentler in doing so and a little less wickedly humorous than when critiquing Team Obama. This was another motif I noticed this year; I heard no criticism of Bush last year that I can recall, though I was only there for Saturday then, so I can't speak for the first 2 days. Bolton himself said that we are better off in some ways not having to defend the Bush record anymore...and this is a man who worked for Bush! Nonetheless, truth is truth. Bolton looks to me like the most unlikely figure to give a rousing speech, with his bushy eyebrows and mustache, but he is amazingly effective and on game.

A panel discussion followed on "The Future of the Conservative Movement", featuring Bay Buchanan (Pat's little sister), Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal (who is on Fox regularly with Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the like) and Van Hipp (whom I had never heard of). Bay has a very spirited style, just like her brother. The portion that stuck with me from her few minutes was the assertion that it is in the states that the truly positive changes resulting from waves of popular support/opposition are taking place. She cited new border controls in Arizona, as well as a couple of other initiatives I can't recall right now. Steve Moore's specialty is finance, and of course, he is deeply troubled by all of the bailouts, but he is a happy warrior kind of fellow and fun to listen to. One question that he got in the Q & A afterwards (those are the most interesting portions of the panel discussion sometimes!) was how Republicans can evade being labeled as the "Party of NO"; Moore's response was a chuckle and "What's wrong with THAT?"

My favorite panel discussion of the day was on "The Key to Victory? Listen to Conservatives", which was led by Michael Barone. He opened with a comedic line rife with implication: "I've known Chris Matthews for 30 years, and Barack Obama is the first male that could make a tingle go up Matthew's leg!" Barone is a political genius; the man can break down every constituency in every precinct across every state in this nation and explain what the voting patterns are, of what the demographics consist and countless other arcane pieces of information which I find fascinating. One of his key theses today was that Republicans need to copy Rahm Emanuel's strategy of 2006 and start tactically planning to seriously contest races in 2010 that might not normally be considered friendly turf for Republicans. He cited both the Governorship in New Jersey (the current Democrat Governor, Jon Corzine, recently paid off his ex-girlfriend's $450,000 mortgage out of state funds or something of that nature, according to Barone; my details may be slightly off, but the gist is there) and Chris Dodd's Senate Seat, which suggestion was heartily received! Barone was followed by Aaron Schock, is the youngest person in the Congress. What an inspiration! A 28-year old Republican Congressman from a predominantly African-American district with heavily Democratic voting patterns (Illinois has 2 Democrat Senators, a Democrat governor and the 2 houses of the legislature are both in Democrat hands) and he won the old-fashioned way; he went out and told his story to people and asked for their vote. He won re-election in 2008 even after voting against the minimum wage increase of early 2007, right after his first election. When asked why by his constituents, he accurately and forthrightly explained that minimum wage increases lead to rising prices across the board that effectively cancel out the wage increase. He dared to be upfront with the voters rather than searching for an expedient answer. Makes you want to cheer!

Congressman Mike Pence was the highlight of my day. I love this man. He brought the crowd to their feet over and over again with his rousing call to return to conservative principles and traditional values. This man is fearless. You cannot listen to him and not be inspired. He told the story about a town hall meeting he held in New Castle, Indiana last week where a voter who had just lost his job thanked him for voting against the bailout and said, "Congressman, I can find another job, but I won't be able to find another country if we ruin this one." Pence was the only speaker, I believe, all day to specifically reference the power of prayer, saying that "it is good at times to remember what our knees are for."

The room had filled close to capacity when Sarah Huckabee came to the podium to introduce her father in a warm and touching tribute. Mike Huckabee gave a good speech. I like Governor Huckabee, but being a Romney supporter, I'm certainly not on the bandwagon, especially since I sense a rematch in the making in the 2012 primary. Huckabee punctuated his entire speech with jokes and stories, about 2/3 of which were funny and effective. I enjoyed being able to see him up close and in action. He certainly has a sense of empathy and timing that the crowd clearly enjoyed.

The closing event of the day was supposed to be a panel discussion of the Fairness Doctrine by former Congressman Joe Scarborough (now host of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC), radio host Roger Hedgecock and Tucker Carlson (formerly of CNN's "Crossfire" and also MSNBC's "Tucker"). I'm not sure if this had anything to do with what actually happened, but the news came to us all that afternoon that Senator Jim DeMint had forced a vote on the Fairness Doctrine and the Senate had voted to say "No" to it 87-12. Scarborough came out to rollicking applause, told the crowd he opposed the Fairness Doctrine then proceeded to talk to us about what "I feel like talking about" which was the unlikely story of his election to Congress in 1994, with no money or name ID, defeating a 16-year good-old-boy incumbent, whom he successfully tied to Clinton.

Roger Hedgecock talked about the Fairness Doctrine in a very interesting lecture-type speech; his thesis is that Obama/Reid/Pelosi will try to force localism on radio stations rather than bringing back the Fairness Doctrine.

Tucker Carlson had the crowd in stitches with a very funny, wide-ranging, opinionated speech. His schtick is to overtly encourage interruptions from the crowd, virtually begging for opposition. It was a very different speech from what I thought he would give; not just a name-dropping funfest at all, but a lot of serious political policy discussion combined with the humor and sarcasm. The strand that ran through his talk was that there is nothing wrong with being a negatively oriented party, which Republicans are often accused of. He compared this to parenthood and life in general, asserting that much of life is about saying "NO" to people and helping stop bad things from occurring. He did say, though, that this must be coupled with putting a leader front and center in the party who knows how to communicate ARTICULATELY. He had the crowd roaring with guffaws when he hilariously, but not maliciously compared George W. Bush giving a speech to watching an inebriated friend try to cross a busy street: "You really feel for the guy and you're rooting for him to make it across (or to the end of the sentence), but you just don't know if he's capable of it!" My favorite line of the whole day came from the section of Tucker's speech where he talked about the media's love affair with Obama: "The kind of love the press feels for Barack Obama is the kind you have to be a 14-year-old boy to understand."

What a fun day! And tomorrow we go back for more...Hope to have a series of video clips up first thing in the morning.