CPAC Kicks Off in D.C. (With UPDATES)

UPDATE:

Glenn Beck’s Keynote Speech

Excerpt:

Because of Ronald Reagan, my grandfather, my father, I have hope for America. I remember when Ronald Reagan talked about morning in America. I have always believed that, I have always wanted to believe that, that tomorrow is going to be better than it is today. If you ask people now all across the country, if you say, “Do you think your children are going to be better off than they are today,” the answer will be a resounding “No,” and it’s not just from Republicans or conservatives…It’s the entire spectrum saying that. […]

People are losing a fundamental belief that it’s going to be better tomorrow. Let me tell you now: it is still morning in America. It just happens to be kind of a head-pounding, hung-over, vomiting for four hours kind of morning in America. And it’s shaping up to be kind of a nasty day, but it’s still morning in America. Now, the question is what made us sit there at the John vomiting for four hours. What is it that has taken us on this path? What are we suffering from? What is it that has caused the problem? And if you say Obama, it’s too simple of an answer, because it’s not Barack Obama. […]

(After writing the word “Progressivism” on the blackboard) This is the disease in America. It’s not just spending. It’s not just taxes. It’s not just corruption. It is progressivism. And it is in both Parties. It is in the Republicans and the Democrats…Progressivism is the cancer in America, and it is eating our Constitution. And it was designed to eat the Constitution. To progress past the Constitution. […]

You should ask members of the Republican Party, because this is not our Founders’ idea of America. And this is the cancer that’s eating America. It is big government, it’s a socialist utopia. And we need to address it as if it is a cancer. It must be cut out of the system because they cannot co-exist. And you don’t cure cancer by, “Well, we’re just going to give you a little bit of cancer.” You must eradicate it. […]

Dick Cheney was here a couple of days ago, and he says it going to be a good year for conservative ideas. That’s true. That’s very true…It’s going to be a very good year. But it’s not enough just to not suck as much as the other side. […]

America is an idea. America is an idea that sets people free. I’m tired. I am tired, and I know you are. I’m tired of common sense not applying anymore. We all know what the problems are. It’s tax and spend. One Party will tax AND spend, the other Party won’t tax but WILL spend. It’s both of them. Both of them together. […]

Conservatives believe that we are guaranteed the right to pursue happiness. We’re not guaranteed happiness. Who can guarantee you happiness? Tiger Woods wasn’t happy. No one is guaranteed happiness. You can pursue it. But if you happen to find success along the way on that road to happiness, conservatives believe you shouldn’t be demonized or penalized for it. We believe in the right of the individual…What we don’t have a right to is healthcare, housing, or handouts. We don’t have those rights. […]

Every time the government grows, we lose more of who we are. When did it become something of shame or ridicule to be a self-made man in America? When did it become a problem to be a small businessman and become successful? […]

As I read the Constitution, as I read the words of the Founders, really the only job of the United States government is to save us from bad guys. Protect us from bad guys. And right now, it seems to me that our government looks at the American people as the bad guy. We’re not the bad guy. Stop penalizing us.

Americans also don’t need to be taught how to give. We don’t need to be taught how to take care of each other or how to be charitable. We’re charitable automatically. Why? We’re Americans. In 2008, the American people gave $307 billion to charity. It was the second year in a row, this is the last statistic that we have. 2008, second year in a row that it was over $300 billion. Per capita, that’s ten times the giving power of the people of France. Ten times the amount. Don’t tell me we need to be more like Europe. Europe should be looking over here.

……I have been saying the worst is coming. I have been saying it for a while. But you will find the answers in history. It’s the same story over and over again. We just need to learn our own history. Learn from our own mistakes. Admit that we have a problem. Grow a spine, stand for the right things. Our future is not cast in stone. It does not have to be this way. It does not have to be that the greatest American generation is behind us. It does not have to be that our children will have a lower standard of living. It will be that way if we choose to believe that. I choose not to believe that.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/02/20/glenn-beck-delivers-keynote-address-enthusiastic-cpac

HOOAH! Republicans need to take those words to heart.
UPDATE:

From the WaPo.

……The annual Conservative Political Action Conference was once a venue for the right fringe of the Republican Party, but in recent years it has drawn more mainstream party figures and now provides a stage for presidential aspirants to prove their conservative credentials.

This year’s CPAC, which began Thursday and will run through Saturday, had a festival atmosphere, as thousands of jubilant activists turned the Marriott Wardman Park ballroom into a hive of old-guard conservatives and Don’t Tread on Me “tea partiers” hungry for new leaders and messages that can carry the GOP out of the political wilderness.

It was, in the words of one speaker, “our Woodstock.”

……”If these liberal neo-monarchists succeed, they will kill the very spirit that has built the nation — the innovating, inventing, creating, independent current that runs from coast to coast,” (Mitt) Romney said. Pounding on the lectern as the audience leapt up, he declared: “And we won’t let ’em do it.”

The attendees stomped and screamed at the appearance of the surprise guest who introduced Romney: Scott Brown. “I’m the newly elected Republican senator from Massachusetts,” Brown said. “Let me just say that one more time. I am the Republican senator from Massachusetts.”

……”When it comes to pinning blame, pin the tail on the donkeys,” Romney told the thousands who had gathered for his speech.

……Marco Rubio, 38, a son of Cuban immigrants… is running an outsider’s campaign in Florida for U.S. Senate. The audience showered Rubio with applause as he ruminated in a keynote address about American exceptionalism and his own improbable journey.

“It’s sometimes easy to forget how special America really is,” Rubio said, making his debut on the national stage. “But I was raised by exiles, by people who know what it is like to lose their country, by people who have a unique perspective on why elections matter, or lack thereof, by people who clearly understand how different America is from the rest of the world. . . . What makes America great is that there are dreams that are impossible everywhere else but are possible here.”

Rubio is running in a hotly contested GOP primary campaign against Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a race that has pitted the conservative grass roots, which have embraced Rubio, against the more moderate party establishment.

Rubio’s assaults on Obama’s economic policies and his administration’s handling of national security enthralled the activists.

“We will do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to defeat radical Islamic terrorism,” Rubio said. “We will punish their allies like Iran. We will stand with our allies like Israel. We will target and we will destroy terrorist cells and the leaders of those cells. The ones that survive, we will capture them. We will get useful information from them.

“And then,” Rubio continued, trying to speak over the boisterous crowd, “we will bring them to justice in front of a military tribunal in Guantanamo — not a civilian courtroom in Manhattan.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021802284.html

UPDATE:
Big Hollywood at CPAC.

Conservatives need to stop whining. That’s what producers and entertainment veterans Larry O’Connor and Kevin McKeever spent the morning telling attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference ( CPAC ). Want to get more conservative programming? Films? Theater? Want to work in the entertainment industry? Then “be an American, don’t give up — it’ll happen, if you’re good,” said McKeever. Just don’t whine that conservatives never get a break.

The two conservatives, who say they are a part of a “secret society” of like-minded folks behind and in front of the camera and on stage, don’t deny that some “ninety percent” of the industry is liberal. The very fact that they have to be part of a “secret society” that centers on networking and advancing the careers of conservatives in entertainment says they have a long way to go, but there are much more of them now than ever before.

“Up to 2 years ago, life for a conservative in Hollywood really sucked,” said O’Connor, who writes for Breitbart’s Big Hollywood and counts himself part of a growing group of conservatives making things happen for up-and-comers in L.A.
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/02/18/big-hollywood-hits-cpac/

UPDATE:

The theme of this year’s CPAC is Saving Freedom. This panel was on how the under-30 group will impact the conservative movement. Fox News Contributor Kevin McCullough and radio host Stephen Baldwin were speakers on this panel. McCullough and Baldwin also are hosting the XPAC Lounge. A place where the under-30 crowd can come network with their peers.
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/02/18/cpacsaving-freedom-for-future-generations/

UPDATE:

CAIR, especially head jihadist Ibrahim Hooper, gets their turbans in a wad over CPAC discussion of muslim-caused terrorism.

A panel discussion on the threat posed by “Islamic supremacism,” Shariah and political correctness has been scheduled for this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, stirring complaints from some American Muslims that the exercise amounts to Muslim-bashing.

The two-hour session, titled “Jihad: The Political Third Rail,” is set for Friday morning, right in the middle of the three-day annual summit of conservative icons and activists in Washington, D.C.

Scheduled to speak are Steve Coughlin, a former Pentagon specialist on Islamic law who was fired two years ago, allegedly under pressure from pro-Muslim officials, and Wafa Sultan, an author and prominent critic of Islam. The discussion is billed as a window into Islam’s “war on free speech,” the “encroachment” of Shariah — or Islamic law — in the West and efforts by the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate American society.

Overall, CPAC is attuned more to political strategy and domestic issues, but organizers of the “Jihad” session have been trying to stir the pot with what they call a blunt and objective discussion of Muslims’ attempts to harm the West while silencing criticism.

Mission accomplished. The pot has been stirred.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/17/cpac-session-jihad-free-speech-draws-protest/

UPDATE:
The Mount Vernon Statement

The most influential conservative grassroots leaders nationwide signed the Mount Vernon statement recommitting their movement to constitutional conservatism.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/17/whos-conservative-movement-unveils-mount-vernon-statement/

UPDATE:
Dick Cheney’s surprise visit.
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/02/18/dick-cheney-suprise-visit-to-cpac/
CPAC Conference opens.

Over the course of the next few days conservatives will gather in Washington for CPAC — the Conservative Political Action Conference. Expect more attendees than last year’s record turnout – The Washington Times reports that registration is up 20 percent – and prepare for more passion from them. This demo is particularly fed up with the incompetence of government, and more jubilation as they see this as an opportunity to take back control of congress.

But a conference, summit, or large gathering in Washington or elsewhere does not a majority make. While speeches, doctrine and official statements might be helpful if they encourage Republican office-holders to stay within the guard rails of responsible conduct, words are nothing without real action.

While you will hear the right speak of a dysfunctional Washington amid calls for a more effective and responsible government, don’t be fooled. Big, powerful government is intoxicating — even to Republicans. Many modern day GOP-ers believe that they can manage the gigantic welfare state in a “smarter” way using private sector techniques. This is wrong, and strays far from true conservatism.

To really embrace conservatism, over the next three days, weeks, months and years, the right must address and implement a plan to influence the culture. Waging battles over health care, climate change and taxes are acceptable, but they will be short lived. The real fight must be to win the all encompassing, larger war with the left over the cultural the permeates our nation. If we cede this ground, there is nothing left to fight for.

Modern day culture has become so coarse because it is largely driven by the left. They rule the trifecta of cultural influence: the media, academia and entertainment. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/02/17/andrea-tantaros-cpac-republicans-democrats-culture/