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Over the weekend, Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll for president. Many pundits immediately dismissed the win, for a lot of reasons. (The Atlantic did a roundup of all the "he's irrelevant" comments.) My take on Ron Paul is this: He says a lot of off-the-wall stuff, but his bottom line is that he's a limited-government libertarian. And he's not Mitt Romney, the establishment GOP choice. I think that's why he won. Joe Scarborough likes to say that if you look at where Ross Perot did well in 1992, those are the same places that tea party candidates are...

Ronald Reagan the actor once famously screamed on screen "Where's the rest of me?!" after waking in a hospital to discover that a sadistic surgeon had amputated both of his legs. My guess is that Ronald Reagan the national leader would express similar horror at what is happening to his beloved conservative movement as some in its ranks seek to sever from its agenda the priority "the Gipper" consistently gave to the national security. One need look no further than the various functions held in the Washington area last week to see why Mr. Reagan would be so alarmed. On...

Allen West's brilliant speech and Jon David's love song to America....

Washington (CNN) - The organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference are hitting back at former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who argued over the weekend that the annual convention's influence among conservatives is waning. CPAC is becoming "increasingly libertarian and less Republican," Huckabee told Fox News on Saturday, one reason he said he decided not to attend this year....

Commentary’s Peter Wehner rightly draws attention to George Will’s superb speech at CPAC last week. Although the speeches of other speakers, such as Newt Gingrich, Andrew Breitbart, Glenn Beck and, yes, even Ron Paul were covered extensively in the blogosphere, Will’s speech has largely been ignored. This is, as far as I’m concerned, a shame, because Will truly “knocked one out of the park,” as Wehner puts it. Will’s main point was that the Left’s main goal is to make Americans dependent on the government for pretty much everything. He succinctly called this “the dependency agenda.” I strongly encourage you...

AT NRO, Mark Levin hammers Beck too: See full text of Levin's Comments here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2457009/posts ________________________________________________________ I want to commend Bill Bennett for his wise piece this morning on the Corner. http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzM5OTJkYWE1ZTA5OTI1NWJiMjYwNDI4ZDg0NmQ3MGQ= I agree with him. I have no idea what philosophy Glenn Beck is promoting. And neither does he. It’s incoherent. One day it’s populist, the next it’s libertarian bordering on anarchy, next it’s conservative but not really, etc. And to what end? I believe he has announced that he is no longer going to endorse candidates because our problems are bigger than politics. Well, of course, our problems...

Bigotry and bumperstickers. The American way… more...

February 22, 2010 CPAC's Odd Ending By C. Edmund Wright What a Saturday at CPAC! Ron Paul out-polled Sarah Palin almost five to one, and keynoter Glenn Beck got huge ovations as he disavowed any conservative ascendancy within the Republican Party. So someone please tell me -- just what the heck happened to a convention that was off to such a wonderful conservative start? Where is the momentum from the Marco Rubio speech and the Dick Cheney "Obama is a one-term president" moment? Perhaps David Keene of the American Conservative Union will be a bit more careful when picking keynote...

I’m resisting the idea that he said this purely out of personal pique but I can’t come up with a good alternative strategic explanation. What political benefit is there, in this year of all years, to knock CPAC for being “more libertarian” and “less Republican”? Libertarianism has never had more cachet within the GOP than it has right now; it’s not perfectly synonymous with the tea-party movement (of which Huckabee is predictably complimentary) but it’s close enough, especially with Beck in the role of TPers’ patron saint. Maybe Huck thinks finding any reason to knock an “establishment” event like CPAC...

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), hosted by the American Consrvative Union (ACU), at the Wardman Park Marriott in Washington, D.C., offered events for conservatives from all over the country to look forward to as well as a number of surprises. Here is a wrap up of CPAC 2010 happenings that made news this weekend.

Doug Hoffman stopped by Red State's Bloggers Lounge to talk with the bloggers. I was fortunate enough to work with another brilliant conservative blogger - GenMom - and snagged an interview with Doug.The video was shot in a busy hallway, please turn up your speaker volume to better hear this interview with Doug.[VIDEO AT SITE] Doug is currently running for Congress - Hoffman for Congress 2010Read more at floppingaces.net...

You can't really understand CPAC from what you see on TV. First of all only some of the speeches were covered. Even if they were all covered, the speeches in the main ballroom are only part of the program. There are other speakers, movies and presentations going on throughout the building. To really understand the mood and tone of CPAC, you really need to walk the halls, speak to the attendees watch the movies etc. Its one of the things most of the people who covered the event tried to do. Mike Huckabee, however is special, he didn't attend the...

What motivates conservative women hasn't changed much since mavens like Phyllis Schafly took on the feminists as a pro-life torchbearer in the 1970s, and the Conservative Political Action Conference this week has shown that their roles in the conservative movement have only grown. Conservative commentator Ann Coulter delivered a rousing speech Saturday, and Sarah Palin, though not in attendance, has been a constant reference point at this week's annual conference in Washington, D.C. One panel discussion, "Going Rogue: Women Changing the Face of Conservatism," took its name from Palin's recent book about her experience on the campaign trail as the...

Ron Paul out-polled Sarah Palin almost 5 to 1 and keynoter Glenn Beck got huge ovations as he disavowed any conservative ascendency within the Republican Party. So someone please tell me - just what the heck happened to a convention that was off to such a wonderful conservative start? Where is the momentum from the Marco Rubio speech and the Dick Cheney "Obama is a one term President" moment? Perhaps David Keene of the American Conservative Union will be a bit more careful when picking keynote speakers from now on. What happened was predictable, given that the man he picked...

Video of Ron Paul at CPAC.

Michael Steele, Chairman of the RNC, visits Ron Paul at the Campaign For Liberty booth at CPAC 2010 to pick up a copy Paul’s most recent book, “End the Fed“. I wonder if Steele voted for Paul in the Straw Poll? Nah… couldn’t be, or could it?

Speech by George Will to CPAC 2010.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A straw poll of US conservative activists saw Texas congressman Ron Paul emerge as the preferred Republican presidential candidate to run against President Barack Obama in 2012. Some 31 percent of the more than 2,000 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) attendees who participated in the poll voted for the outspoken libertarian. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate in 2008, came in third with 7.0 percent, some way behind former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (22 percent), who had won the CPAC poll for the last three years. There were boos among the crowd as the...

SARAH Palin may be a darling of the political Right, but another outspoken critic of big government has emerged as the favourite of many mainstream US conservatives for the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2012. Ron Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas known for his strong libertarian views, won the annual straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington yesterday with 31 per cent of the 2400 votes cast. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has topped the poll three times previously, finished second with 22 per cent. Ms Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate in 2008, came...

For those of you that don’t know, Ryan Sorba is the pompous genius who decided to wreck his big debut at CPAC by getting himself booed off stage. Watch the video below: ... What a likeable guy. “Bring it, I love it, I love it!” It’s pretty ironic that this guy who likes to show off his toughness is making a career out of attacking homosexuals. He even said to gay Republican Alex Knepper (who, in all fairness, didn’t exactly confront him politely—only click the link if you are ready for some crude remarks) that he’d fight him if his...