So for a few days,torture,gitmo and God made a comeback at the CPAC meeting, then things went awry. Bob Barr showed up and defended the trial of terrorist suspects in court and denounced waterboardiing as torture while being soundly booed. Ron Paul appeared and gave his campaign for liberty speech. College Kids attended en masse and Ron Paul wins the presidential straw vote hands down with such favorites as Sarah Palin, Tom Pawlenty barely making single digits. And the past three-time winner Mitt Romney sank to second, ten points behind Paul. KABOOM! So much for the juggernaut of conservative constitutionalism. What started as a strong endorsement of Bush-Cheney politics ended up in mayhem.
To top the whole thing off was the appearance as keynote speaker of Glenn Beck. Beck, with newly dyed blond hair, riffed on his theme that progressives starting with TR and Woodrow Wilson purposely embarked on destroying the constitution--something progressives do to this day. He even whipped out his famous chalkboard. He demanded that Republicans adopt a 12-step program like he did at AA and cease to be a party of "not tax and spend". He said that worst times made be coming and that it was good that Americans fail, lose their homes and jobs. "Failure made me a success", he said. He also said that he was the first member of his family ever to go to college--although he didn't specify for only one semester. He also talked about past generations of Americans who had lost everything and that this made people stronger. His ideal President--believe or not--was Calvin Coolidge. He told the audience that America wasn't a circus so the Republican Party should not become a big tent party. It should not be a clown car.
CPAC was a raving success for its organizers. They got full coverage on all major networks and received full analysis on the political blogs. But you have to ask,"where's the Beef? Strogonoff?"
At the end, the conservative movement is fractured. They only seem united by their hatred of Barack Obama. So where does that get you?
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