Posted on 02/28/2015 7:04:26 PM PST by ziravan
So. I flew from Texas as a guest of Ted Cruz' PAC to attend CPAC. I'm in my hotel room in Crystal City getting ready to go back home in the morning.
This was my first time to attend CPAC.
My observations:
1. Three types of pepole in attendance: college intern type, political operative type, and far fewer: average people.
2. The Paul people were everywhere. Judging by the idiot sitting behind me at the "Big Government Sucks" rally, I'm not impressed. This college kid was trying to explain, very patiently, to his buddy that the problem isn't really big government, but how that big government is run. Oh! and the Constitution was designed to be flexible with the times.
3, Paul had a huge group there, all college kids. Cruz had a decent group present. Ben Carson had a decent crowd. I didn't see any Walker people there. Anybody else was negligible. The only time I saw el Jefe people was when they raided the ballroom before his speech.
I prefer Cruz over Walker. Indeed, I attended for the sole reason to vote for Cruz. I have to give Walker this prop: his showing was based soley on his current rise in awareness for the early campaign.
Let me also say that candidates could invite people to attend, and it seemed to be standard that invitees from candidate could get half price tix: 67.50/day instead of 125. I believe the campaigns paid the difference.
2, I was surprised just how many interns filed in for Bush during his speech. It was the only time we saw Jeb! stickers on interns the whole event. They literally crowded the ballroom to SRO.
3. Rick Perry came across angry and focused his whole speech on foreign policy. He didn't play to his strength as one of the most successful Govs in recent history. At all.
For all the talk of a walkout for Bush, the real walkout was on Santorum. Half the room left when he got up to speak. Of course, he was on right after Rand Paul spoke and all the Paul-ites were leaving as Sen. Santorum was coming to the podium.
4, I met Freeper C. Edmund Wrigt and he gave me a copy of his book, "How Karl Rove and the Establishment Lost...Again." I'm going to read it when I get home. Thanks.
5. I bought a T-shirt of the Cruz Tattoo Pic.
6. I finally learned how to manipulate the Metro to my advantage...now that I'm leaving.
7. CPAC 2016 is Wed Mar 2 - Sat Mar 6. The Texas Primary is now set for Tueday, Mar 1. That should make CPAC 2016 a shake-up event for the race.
8. I went to a breakout session w/ FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. Essentially, everybody thinks this will go to Court and there's a good chance that they Administration didn't cross it's Ts and dot its Is to survive a challenge.
I had a good time. I'm more jaded about politics and how it works. And less so.
Good summary.
I was hoping you’d have some comment on Levin. Beyond “Best Speech”, do you further thoughts? How was his reception by the crowd?
And who is this?
Were you there when all the people walked out when Bush began to speak?
Agreed They should advertise it in advance. I’m on Ted Cruz’ email list because I donated to his Senate campaign.
They emailed me an invitation a few months ago that I ignored. They emailed me a followup invitation, a last call, about 3 weeks ago. I almost couldn’t get things set in time.
I was able to fly Southwest from Love Field directly to Reagan for cheap: ~$220 round trip. That made the trip much better.
If I hadn’t already been on Sen. Cruz’ email list, I’d of missed it.
I believe CSPAN used to carry it in the past, and NO I am not talking about C SPAN 3.
I tried the live feed from Drudge, but was not live for me...I did a google search and found a great site that had it streaming...cant recall the name at the moment but it was great
I loved Sarah Palin over all...Cruz and Walker very good...I like Ted Cruz after Sarah...I suspect Sarah will endorse Ted Cruz...unless the unthinkable happens and she runs...would love that, but yes Cruz would be great
Sarah will endorse whoever the Republican nominee is.
I had always heard that Ron Paul had people bussed in,and figured it continued with Rand.
Meanwhile others in past have really not even tried to win the poll, that`s why I find the entire Straw poll a joke
Thank you, from all us Freeps who couldn't attend and support Senator Cruz.
I walked out.
Honestly, there was always people coming and going and it didn’t seem to me that there were more people walking out than “average”.
But. I was there when the ballroom was only 80% empty about 30 min before Bush took the stage. I watched hundreds of interns with Jeb! stickers walk into the room in a 15 min period. They came complete with team leaders that organized them to take every empty seat and to spread out to fill the seat of anybody that left.
IF anybody was planning an organized walkout, it’s very deflating to know that your seat will by taken by a sycophant the moment you vacate it. This was an effective strategy in damping down a walk out.
But. Look at the video. Look how nervous el Jefe was. He knew that he wasn’t among friends.
Also, busing those interns into the room meant buying their admission tix and that meant each of them got a straw poll vote. Bush’s complete poll result can be attributed to bought votes. It’s a straw poll, that’s how it works. Without the bus-in, I doubt he’d have done a quarter as well in the poll. Seems to me that the only people that cared to vote for him were people paid to be there.
I know some idiots who are in their eighties, and ought to know better than to vote Dem. My parents.
Thanks for the report, very thoughtful of you, I’ll never get to one so its nice to get the straight scoop.
Thanks for the report and the excellent perspective.
I think Bush is toast.
only 80% FULL I meant.
Of Course she will, but I would not be surprised to see her go all in for Cruz.
There is absolutely nobody out there that has thanked Sarah so publicly than Cruz..
He has said multiple times that she was the one person most responsible for him winning his seat.
That really really impressed me, because I can think of quite a number that played her support down after the fact... Nikki Haley of SC was a big disappointment in that respect.
But Ted Cruz multiple times credited Sarah for his victory in Texas, absolutely.
Same for my great-aunt and great-uncle.
Good points.
People like Sarah should go behind the scenes and let it be known that they will not support Bush. Bush needs to get an ear full and quit right now. But he won’t.
Don't even get me started on my siblings. Dummies all.
I’m in my eighties and would never think of voting for most of the Dems I’m aware of. I am for Cruz all the way!
I have a neighbor (retired school teacher ) that is a Dem and it doesn’t matter what the person running for office is, he will vote for him/her along as they are Dems. They are in their eighties also. I tell him his party left him over the years, I believe he knows this but he just won’t change.
Let him and his blinkered supporters throw their money away on an impossible dream. He's going nowhere.
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