Defending the Dream Summit 2009, Part II

I used my time between the rally and the Tribute to Ronald Reagan Dinner Friday night to check out the sponsor displays (Heritage Foundation, Leadership Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, among many others) and also stuck my head inside Blogger Row a few times to see what was going on. I texted one of my Tweeps (Twitter buddies), Katy Benningfield from North Carolina, and found out that she was on Blogger Row, so went in and met her and her husband, Rob for the first time, even though we already felt like we were pretty well acquainted!

The Tribute to Ronald Reagan Dinner was a perfectly stellar affair. My intrepid new Hoosier friends, James and Lisa Deaton, had gotten to the head of the line into the Arlington Ballroom and most of our group from the Senate office visits that afternoon was able to sit together, at a very decently situated table.

I am still somewhat nonplussed (but in a good way) that there were actually two prominent dinner keynoters. I don't know that I have ever attended a political dinner before where that was the case, so it was definitely a benefit that they were both highly gifted speakers. Radio host Laura Ingraham was first. I heard via Twitter later on that evening that she gave her entire speech with a 100+ degree fever; I imagine that was probably true since she had spoken about losing her voice earlier that day on her radio show. She had a good time discussing the big event of the day, namely, the Olympic news.

Laura, if anything, is probably an even more effective speaker than Ann Coulter is. This would stand to reason since Ann's gift lies in the power of her pen and Laura is the most successful female talk show host on the radio today.

But the true star of the evening was Indiana's own Congressman Mike Pence, who, come to think of it, also used to be a talk show host. I have seen Pence on a few occasions and been on a conference call with him, but this was a venue that allowed Mike Pence to demonstrate his formidable communication skills. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand from the very beginning; it was something beautiful to behold! The speech was a perfect mix of inspiring anecdotes, stirring challenges and scintillating wit. That probably sounds effusive, but you would have to have been there. I heard a lot of buzz on the way out to the Metro that night about Presidential possibilities and for the first time, I began to take this possibility seriously. (I saw a news story later this week about Pence paying a visit to South Carolina; I have no clue whether this means anything or not.)

Saturday followed the same format as Day 2 of Right Online: celebrity speakers in the morning followed by an afternoon full of panel workshops.

Newt Gingrich kicked things off. I have heard Newt in person a number of times now. Tim Phillips introduced him as "the best mind in the conservative movement." Hard to argue with that, love him or diss him. He never seems to use any notes and seemingly pulls this brilliant analysis out of thin air over and over again. The most memorable analogy that he drew that morning once again addressed Obama's failure to secure the Olympics for Chicago. Newt reminded us all that as a Georgia resident, he was invested in the struggle to bring the Olympics to Atlanta in 1996. But, in a bipartisan gesture, he paid full credit to Andrew Young, at that time the (Democrat) mayor of Atlanta. Young, recollected Newt, worked tirelessly for months, lobbying each member of the Olympic committee, making the case for Atlanta. We all know how the story turned out. Newt then moved in for the rhetorical sucker punch, stating that the Chicago Olympic attempt by Obama is emblematic of his whole approach to just about anything. Smile a lot, give a nice speech and hope everything works out OK, rather than doing the hard work necessary to bring about real accomplishment. Newt asserted that if Obama had laid the proper groundwork, as Andrew Young did, Chicago would probably be lighting the torch in 7 years.

Senator Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, was the recipient this year of the George Washington Award from Americans for Prosperity, for his tireless championing of genuine conservative principles. He accepted the award and gave a short speech, as well, in which he stated that he "fears" the reproach of the American people far more than anything the inside-the-Beltway crowd can do to him or say about him. His leadership of the Senate Conservative Fund, with its early endorsement of Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and its backing of Marco Rubio in Florida is one of many efforts that bears out the truth of what he told us.

Steve Moore, from the Wall Street Journal, gave basically the same speech that I had heard at Right Online. Good stuff; it just all sounded familiar, but then again, that may be because hardly a day goes by when he isn't featured in a segment on Fox. Smart guy, so it figures.

John Fund also appeared briefly at Dream '09, another very intelligent author and commentator from the Wall Street Journal. He has done major work exposing the fraudulent shell game that ACORN represents.

But the real red meat that morning came from radio host Herman Cain. WOW. This guy was on fire. I had heard him fill in for Neal Boortz a couple of times, but again, had never had occasion to watch him in a setting such as this. He had the crowd going with a SIN acronym that represents liberals who are not worth trying to convert: Liberals who Shift the subject, Ignore facts and finally, Namecall are "unsaveable", so it is time to move on to someone else who is actually willing to think. Not the most sophisticated material, but it was only part of the whole and in any event, Cain's talk was more of a pep rally than a serious speech. I know he is more than capable of giving the latter and would like to hear him do it sometime; Cain, after all, is a former chairman and CEO of Godfather Pizza, which was close to bankruptcy at the time he took it over. (He subsequently restored it to profitability in a mere 14 months.)

The morning rally ran long and most of us left for lunch before Larry Kudlow was up. This was, again, my first time to see Kudlow, but I hope it won't be the last. Kudlow has his own TV show on CNBC, unseen by me to date. I didn't know there was still a reason to watch CNBC with the advent of Fox Business, but I will be checking it out. Kudlow is an avid supply-side economist and a capable speaker; all in all, this may very well have been my favorite presentation of the day. I just wish I had taken better notes. I had forgotten that Kudlow was among the 8 or 9 conservatives at George Will's home when Will hosted President-elect Barack Obama back in January. Kudlow regaled us with a bit of atmospheric description of the evening, stating that Obama was a very nice and charming young man, "but let me tell you something: He doesn't know a bloody thing about the economy." The crowd roared.

I went to three workshops that afternoon and by far, the best was the one on Social Media Networking, hosted by Melissa Clouthier, Aaron Marks and Katie Favazza. Melissa is a contributor at Right Wing News (John Hawkins' site), Aaron is a social media consultant in Pittsburgh and Katie has blogged in the past for Townhall and now has her own blog at CatherineFavazza.com. All 3 emphasized the absolute essentiality of networking online as the wave of the future, through Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Ning groups and a number of other venues.

Miscellaneous favorite moments of Dream '09:

1. Exchanging a few words with Jim Miller, AFP board member and former Budget Director in the Reagan administration. I told him that Reagan is the first President I remember and that if it weren't for him, I probably wouldn't even be attending an event like Dream '09. I'm sure he had heard this before, but he was extremely gracious.

2. Getting acquainted with other activists from different key think tanks and grassroots organizations. As I stated yesterday, it feels like a family after a while...very much a happy warrior atmosphere. It was good to briefly see Elizabeth Terrell from the "Not Evil, Just Wrong" team, as well as her boss, film director Phelim McAleer, after talking with them at Right Online. Also Amy Menefee from AFP and my friends Kurt & Kristen Luidhart (who live within 60 miles of me, but whom I seem to see more often out of state lately than otherwise) and a number of Tweeps whom I met in person for the first time.

3. Seeing all the young kids that aren't caught up in the mush of liberalism, but are eager to advance the conservative, free-market cause. It is encouraging, beyond words.