So let me right this down before I forget. It is currently 3 am on Sunday, February 10, 2008. The past four days (travel time included) I spent at CPAC. CPAC stands for the Conservative Political Action Conference. For those of you who STILL don’t know what this is, it is basically the biggest national gathering of every segment of the Republican Party; there were conservatives, libertarians, neo-cons, paleo-cons, Hucksters, Paulites, Macheads and Mittheads. It was quite the event. The following is my journey through this wonderful convention
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
I drove down on Wednesday with 7 TCNJ College Republicans to CPAC. We stayed just a few blocks from the Omni Shoreham Hotel, where the conference was held. Little was done on Wed night, as we had a long day ahead of us.
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
We woke up early Thursday, took the metro to the hotel, registered and sat down. First there was a conversation about Ronald Reagan, which included panelists and videos of Reagan himself. Then, Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to the convention. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced the vice president. Cheney was, surprisingly, pretty funny. Next was an interesting panel on conservative roots. Next, Governor Mitt Romney drops out in front of us. Of all the Romney bashing I have done, I have to say Romney is the classiest guy I have ever seen. He starts out with a stump speech, and then throws his support to the front runner, Senator McCain. I respect Gov. Romney a whole lot more hearing him sacrifice his chances for the white house this time, in order to help the party. I saw lemmings taking off their Romney shirts and immediately putting on McCain gear. What happened to standing for your principles? After he spoke, the buzz was constant. What could possibly top Romney’s withdrawal from the race? After Lunch, Senator McCain spoke to the gathered crowd. I was not able to get into the speech, however I saw him pull up in his car, and have two (very blurry) pictures of the senator at arm’s length away from me. It was exhilarating. When I finally made it back into the main room we saw Sec. Elaine Chao (wife of Sen. McConnell and current Bush labor secretary). She made Ralph Nader sound like Mike Huckabee; it was disastrous. The main reasons for returning to see Sec. Chao was to see my candidate for president Texas Congressman Dr. Ron Paul address the convention. He gave his usual stump speech. Paul was the only candidate; in fact, the only person who was of any note that spoke at CPAC, who walked into the crowd, took pictures, signed autographs or otherwise engaged the audience. At this point, it was a long day and the night was just getting started. Due to the President’s necessary time slot changes (he was going to survey the tornado damage in Tennessee) the president was scheduled to speak at 7 am the next day, with the doors opening at 5. Most people just stayed up all night. DC Fest, an annual gathering of the CRs from around the country at the Hawk n Dove, was a lot of fun. We danced the night away.
Friday, February 8th 2008
I decided not to wake up early to see the president. The TCNJ group that went did not get in, so I was able to get some sleep in. Around noon, I got dressed and went back to the hotel, where I skipped the speakers and went right to the conservative political fair they had. It was an enormous room filled with every group imaginable, from the ACLU to the Young Americans Foundation. I spent four hours there. The SWAG was impressive: the CRNC gave out bottle openers (the irony haha), bumper stickers, books, bags, shirts, you name it. They had political buttons, blogging stations, radio shows set up, book signings, internship fairs; it was a lot to take in. I was able to gather a lot of information for the College Republicans, which we shall use to combat liberalism here at Rider. Around 5 we went back to the hotel and had another…memorable evening!
Saturday February 9th, 2008
We woke up, packed, checked out of the hotel, packed the cars and went back to the conference. We arrived just in time to hear Governor Mike Huckabee speak. It was impressive. After Huckabee, there were a couple of panels speaking which we listened to. At noon, Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) spoke. His speech, which consisted of him mentioning his inexperience in Washington DC, his record as a tax cutting, deficit cutting, fiscal conservative and his unwavering support of the Boy Scouts of America (he was a former eagle scout) makes me believe the 2008 Republican presidential ticket will be McCain-Perry ’08. At one, Phyllis Schafly spoke. She was extremely well received and well respected. I got lunch and watched a portion of Newt Gingrich’s speech. He makes good points, but he just needs someone else to promote them. During the same time as Gingrich’s speech, Phyllis Schafly and her son held a panel on judicial activism. It was very educational and we were able to interact with the panelists, which was nice. At the conclusion of this panel, we went back into the main ballroom and heard the results of the straw poll. Even considering Governor Romney dropped out of the race on Thursday, he still won the straw poll. Tony Snow, former Fox News anchor and White House press secretary, gave one of the better speeches of the convention. At the conclusion of his speech the convention adjourned. We went back to our cars and went back to NJ.
CPAC was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I am literally exhausted, excited for this election cycle, ready to get started. I plan on attending next year and so should interested Rider republicans. It is an amazing opportunity that I hope we all take advantage of next year.
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