As fate had it I was able to attend a decent chunk of CPAC this year. It had its lows, such as the poor guy who threw himself off of a parking garage Thursday morning (for what seems to be nonpolitical reasons) and a bizarre security snafu on Thursday afternoon – Jim Geraghty chronicled both events if you want a bit more detail. But overall it was a great experience – I got to hear some interesting talks and meet some great folks…
I got to briefly meet fellow New Jersey 80’s Mallrat, National Review’s Jim Geraghty – his Morning Jolt newsletters do a lot of my homework for me on my admittedly too infrequent blog posts. We waxed nostalgic on the malls where we wasted too many of our teenage years, and agreed that one major flaw from the Kevin Smith masterpiece Mallrats failed to adequately portray the dinginess of the sadly departed US1 Flea Market. While Jim was doing a broadcast on Radio Row, I started chatting with a woman who turned out to be his Podcast partner Mickey White. It was one of those strange moments where I couldn’t figure out what was familiar about her until I realized that I didn’t know her face but her voice. It was only after seeing her name on her badge that I knew who I was talking to! That’s one of the stranger things of meeting a radio/podcast personality, and in case you’re wondering she’s as cool off the air as she is on.
*** Update – Mickey mentioned our encounter in their CPAC roundup podcast! It’s in episode #103, starts at the 2:26 spot and goes for just over a minute. Thanks, Mickey! ***
You might know about that POS White Supremacist Richard Spencer – he was the guy who got sucker punched by one of the Radical Left’s domestic terrorists who were trying to disrupt a peaceful transition of power. No, that’s not a defense of Spencer, but being a scumbag doesn’t warrant getting assaulted. What I do support is how we policed our own, and Grizzly Joe told me how his peaceful but profane confrontation with Spencer led to RS booted from the convention. And that’s the difference between our sides – the worst of our worst (and I use the word “our” loosely) get rejected and run out of town. Theirs become the DNC Leadership.
I also got to meet two of my favorite conservative pundits, Bill Whittle and Steve Green for drinks. If you’re unfamiliar, Bill runs one of the new Conservative video sites – it has its share of both free and premium content. One of my favorite things about its video content is the lack of foul language, unlike a number of my favorite YouTubers (Sargon of Akkad, Bearing, Chris Ray Gunn, Undoomed, etc). Between Bill, the Vodkapundit (Steve) and Scott Ott, these guys give some great Conservative videos with a nice touch of humor in them. A conversation with the Vodkapundit over drinks Friday night got my most memorable line of the convention. Upon my observing one of their former PJTV broadcasting mates, sitting near us and not being in a good place, Steve calmly remarked, “Oh yeah. We started drinking eight hours ago and he probably didn’t pace himself as well as I did.”
On another note on the Bill Whittle tip, he used a picture of one of the attendees dressed in full Uncle Sam gear going up the escalator as a cover pic for one of his posts. The next day I ran into the kid who was rocking that outfit and shared the link to the story – it made the dude’s day!
But of course, the biggest event was having President Trump speak on Friday morning. Overall it was a good talk, if nothing truly new. I got there just as the seating filled up and was sent to the Standing Room area just behind the press. I was bummed since I didn’t get to be in front and get a shot of their unhappy faces, but I was close enough to a few TV broadcasters to notice an air of hostility. Most noticeably was one of the women working with one of the local DC TV stations – she was sitting in front of me with her arms and legs crossed, and her foot shaking furiously for the entire time that the president spoke. Of course, Trump took a few shots at the press, but nothing like the haymakers he’s thrown in previous press conferences. I’ve heard that as early as minutes after his talk that posts were going up about how nasty he was to them. Meh – get over yourselves. Here are a few of my more memorable takes from the speech itself:
Trump started off by hitting them by saying that the fact that the whole audience was already on their feet would be written as “Trump couldn’t get a standing ovation.” He fired about how he declared the media’s Fake News as our #1 enemy and that when the press re-quoted it they dropped the “fake news” part.
He noted that our national debt doubled over the last 8 years, but only in that passing mention. I wish he would spend more time on that subject, as if we don’t start paying attention to the debt it will end up paying attention to us.
Building The Wall got major applause. He pointed out that the people we’re deporting now are the drug dealers, gang bangers, and other criminal elements. No wonder Democrats are upset – he’s deporting one of their key voter bases!
He urged Democrats to “Approve our cabinet and get smart on health care too”. The first part is inevitable – good luck with the second.
Promising to protect the 2nd Amendment got another huge round of applause
For me, the low point came when his mention of Hillary triggered a “Lock her up!” chant from the crowd. Seriously everybody, we have bigger things to worry about – let that s*** go. Besides, I don’t think that our current treaty with the Romulans allows for deportation of any of their Praetors. We can’t even extradite her to the Neutral Zone, can we?
Trump did some ego tripping by pointing out how early in the GOP Primary there were millions watching – “I’m not going to say it was because of me, but it was”. Can’t argue the point, though.
The end of his talk was beautiful – he closed with a “God bless all of you, and God bless the United States of America.” I’ll never argue with anyone who ends a speech by dropping a quote from The Blues Brothers! At the 5:00 Mark… OK, maybe he wasn’t quoting Elwood
And the song as he left the stage? The Stones’ classic “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Beautiful, both as a taunt to his opponents and a warning to those on our side whose expectations are still in the Stratosphere.
Closing thoughts…
Thank you to all of the great people at Tea Party Patriots who I got to meet at CPAC. And all around, it’s great to spend a few days where you can have adult conversations about politics.
On my way out on Saturday morning I decided to do one last cruise down Radio Row and saw what you see in the pic below. I was about to start chanting “Ram Jam! Ram Jam! Ram Jam!” when I realized it wasn’t Mickey Rourke reprising his role from “The Wrestler”, but rather it was Dog the Bounty Hunter. At CPAC? Sure, why not?
If you attend don’t bother with the Reagan Dinner. For the caliber of speakers and the food, it just isn’t worth the money. If you do go, be sure to get your money’s worth out of the open bar. I might not have, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying…
And my final memory of CPAC is one that has nothing to do with politics. As I was leaving the Gaylord Hotel I saw this dude checking out. No offense Cubs fans, but no matter how cool your Cubs jersey is you’ll never be as cool as this guy!
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Cross posted at from Brother Bob’s Blog
Glad you had a good time and a safe trip Bob.
Please liberal snowflakes please go home and beat your little nutshell heads open against the wall and see your pea sized brains. We dont want to see or hear you throwing your little tantrums on the floor
@kitt: Thanks, and I hope it was a safe trip since I’m local =8^)
@Brother Bob: Last comment was you leaving hotel….you know what they say about assumptions.
@kitt: Understandable mistake if you’ve never been there – I would have assumed the same =8^)
The Gaylord Hotel is a hybrid convention center. When Little Bob was an energy-crazed toddler we used to take him there on weekend mornings to run around – lots of open floor space to roam and easy to keep an eye on him no matter how quickly or randomly he ran!