The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Are You Ready for CPAC?

Posted on | March 5, 2014 | 72 Comments

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland
The 40th Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) begins Thursday, and I’m here early, with nothing to report so far but this:

That’s the room key that CPAC guests at the Gaylord National Harbor Resort Hotel receive, and the National Draft Ben Carson for Committee reportedly paid $100,000 for this publicity. These folks are serious, and Dr. Carson’s speech on Saturday is expected to be a highlight of this year’s event. My 11-year-old daughter Reagan sent me a Facebook message yesterday telling me to get her an autograph from Dr. Carson. So that’s my top priority assignment.

 

Category: CPAC

Comments

72 Responses to “Are You Ready for CPAC?”

  1. LN_Smithee
    March 5th, 2014 @ 11:24 pm

    That’s the point. People voted for Obama on spec, thinking they’d get a once-in-a-lifetime messianic figure and not the most secretive, deceptive, mendacious cipher perhaps in the history of the republic.

    Even with George W. Bush, people figured that he was going to be more Reaganesque than his father. Upon being granted a majority in both legislative houses for the first time in decades, he wasted it on cutting deals with Ted Kennedy that ballooned the budget and the deficit. Dude damn near put his own personal lawyer on the Supreme Court without knowing jack about her philosophy about the Constitution (in case you’ve forgotten, she said her favorite Chief Justice was “Earl Warren Burger”, an answer that is wrong for conservatives no matter how you slice it).

    The stakes are too high. We can’t risk not knowing EXACTLY what we’re going to get if we get what we think we want.

  2. ginny
    March 5th, 2014 @ 11:25 pm

    Okay, just tired of listing Obama’s deficits. Care to respond to anything substantial?

  3. ginny
    March 5th, 2014 @ 11:30 pm

    I agree. All you can do is go by the person’s deeply held convictions and beliefs. Dr. Carson may not do as president everything I’d like him to do in the way I’d like him to do it (on immigration, for instance), but neither did Reagan…or any other politician! Personally my favorite is Scott Walker, but I don’t know if he can beat Hillary, and I’m with Wm. Buckley — I want the most conservative candidate that can win. And I truly think Dr. Carson would unite this country the way no other person on this planet could.

  4. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 5th, 2014 @ 11:34 pm

    Being so easily duped by the intellectual vanguard (media, academia, entertainment) of liberalism.

    The very fact that you think you can prove yourself not racist is evidence of a fundamental misconception regarding the war that we are engaged in.

    Chargers of racism are a very effective weapon (the most effective?) and they’re not going away as long as the media remains in the form it’s currently in.

  5. ginny
    March 5th, 2014 @ 11:38 pm

    Cain was very popular (and was getting 40% of the black vote against Obama!) when the skeletons came out. Dr. Carson doesn’t have skeletons like that. He’s the first to admit he’s not a saint, but he’s written extensively about his foibles and mistakes, and when he was threatened with the press going after him, he shrugged. I agree with you — his political skills are lacking, but I think his character, honesty, integrity, true love of country (without its needing “transformation”), unifying abilities and spectacular accomplishments can overcome his lack of polish and glib responses.

  6. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 5th, 2014 @ 11:39 pm

    It’s about race in the sense that it’s a wild goose chase impelled by a mass-TV-media-driven need to prove that one’s not a racist.

    You can’t prove that you’re not a racist. Simple as that. It cannot be done.

    Assuming that we have limited time and resources, why waste time on such nonsense?

  7. Southern Air Pirate
    March 6th, 2014 @ 12:08 am

    The simple reason is I don’t know enough about him. He has expressed that he isn’t a big fan of the 2nd amendment. We do know that he has made what the left considers is a hate crime by calling out the LGBTQ community and their push for marriage equality. We know that he was like the kid in the story about the Emperor’s new clothes by calling out POTUS and calling the ACA as the newest evil in the land. We know that he is black and he leans some what conservative. Other than that what else do we know about him and his political views? I have seen the conservative community get behind some flash in the pan political types (Herman Cain? Mike Steele?Joe Wurzelbacher?) and then drop them the minute the skeletons come out of the closet or the minute a bad statement is made. If not being flash in the pans they are pushed as the next big thing and everyone jumps the bandwagon only to find the devil we don’t know is worst than the one we know.

  8. ginny
    March 6th, 2014 @ 12:29 am

    We know this “devil” pretty well from the four books he has written, the speeches he has given, his writing in the Washington Times and his appearances on Fox News the past few months. The left will attack him on his defense of marriage between a man and a woman (largely because of his faith — yes, he’s conservative!) Their attacks don’t make that a hate crime, any more than Bill Maher calling him a “drooling moron” makes him one. (If someone with the accomplishments of Dr. Carson is a “moron”, what does that make Maher…?!) I don’t think there’s anyone on earth that I agree with on every single thing. And he’s never claimed to be a saint, but he has no “skeletons” in his closet. So maybe just do some real research, read his extensive writings and watch his speeches….all of which will give you more information and insight into this man than we have about our current president after “knowing” him for seven long years. Ugh!

  9. ginny
    March 6th, 2014 @ 12:32 am

    I agree with you…but it’s hard not to try. btw, Obama’s recent budget does not contain one cent for the Opportunity Scholarship Program in D.C. that has gotten thousands of poor blacks out of the worst school system in the country, over 90% of whom are headed for college. Shame on him!

  10. K-Bob
    March 6th, 2014 @ 3:18 am

    Carson does a better job of sounding “conservative” than Romney did. But he’d be a bad candidate for the same reasons as Romney: He still agrees with the left on too many critical issues.

    Being brilliant and gifted in one field rarely translates into the same outcome when you shift to an entirely different one. At the very least, it doesn’t happen without a lot of hard work to make the transition complete. (Just ask Michael Jordan how his baseball and pro golf careers turned out.)

    We have excellent potential candidates in Cruz, West, Palin, Pence and several others. Those imploring Carson to run are doing him no favors.

    The VP slot would work for him, but that’s an entirely different kettle of crawdads.

  11. Rosalie
    March 6th, 2014 @ 7:53 am

    If Ben Carson were on the ticket I’d vote for him, but I’d rather Cruz be the guy.

  12. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 6th, 2014 @ 8:43 am

    It’s definitely more effective to hurl charges of racism than to try to prove that one’s not a racist.

    We’ve got limited resources and we need to cut to goose chases and bullsh*t and get right to the heart of the matter.

    Conservatives are always going to charged as being racist because the conservative ideas and institutions we’re working to preserve are mostly European intellectual products.

    That’s just the way it is.

  13. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 6th, 2014 @ 9:25 am

    “Corrupt” is putting it mildly.

    The end result of “progressivism”, which is simply a modern word for the marxist notion that a cabal of academics is magically entitled to consciously direct the future of mankind, is your subjugation and extermination.

    Why? You may ask. A key reason is that, for the utopian designs of the masterminds to be realized, obstacles (you) must be removed by any means necessary.

  14. Southern Air Pirate
    March 6th, 2014 @ 11:15 am

    Sunshine, you must either be simple or incredible naive to believe that no one out there doesn’t have “skeletons” in their closet. Have you not seen in the last 20 yrs the “Allred October Surprise” in effect about some of the more vetted interesting conservative political types on either the national or the CA political scene. Everyone has skeletons and it is all a matter of subjection on to how damaged those skeletons are.
    Also, as the wicked witch of California, Ms
    Pelosi, and even the drunk of MA, Mr. Edward Kennedy, or even the current POTUS you can claim to be religious all you want but the minute your religion goes against your policy lust then religious beliefs are dumped faster than HS cheerleader dump Mr. Johnny Star QB after homecoming. Also, faith alone does not make one conservative, I have meet just as many agnostic and atheists who are conservatives as I have religious conservatives.

    It looks like you have drank the Kool aid and you maybe part of a puppet account from a pro – Carson media group (just based on the Disque report where you can but help to mention his name in every single post on a variety of topics) to gin up a groundswell of support for Dr. Carson’s nomination. I applaud you, however I still stand that the doctor doesn’t impress me much. He has written four different books, had one turned into a TV movie with Cuba Gooding Jr. as the star, and since he he made a public name calling out the President on ACA and now being targeted is somehow supposed to be the darling of the conservative movement. Sorry, but I have been burned too many times by the anti – establishment outside DC conservative movements about a potential candidate and only seen them get tripped up either by the media and them finding a “gotcha” moment (Romney and his 47% speech or Cain and his binders of women harassed or Palin’s being tied to a statement on SNL about Russia and her house to name a few recent ones). I will take a wait and see and let him impress me by trying to get on with the idiot prince of the me generation Mr. Stewart or the Angry fool of the TPM TV channel Mr. Matthews or even get on to be talked to with some of the hosts of either of the Public Broadcasting services to present his views also doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy that he could handle the thrashing that the 4th arm of the Progressive – ComIntern political party in this nation if he actually made it to the 2016 nominees.

  15. LN_Smithee
    March 6th, 2014 @ 12:30 pm

    If the entire Monica Lewinsky episode needs to be broached at all, the focus ought to be solely on the way she forcefully alleged that there was a “vast right-wing conspiracy” afoot when in fact there was none. Regardless of whatever people thought about Lewinsky, Linda Tripp, Ken Starr, or Lucianne Goldberg, what was revealed on the front page of the Drudge Report was all true. But there were no apologies coming from Hillary when on the eve of his exit from the White House, her husband negotiated a “no contest” plea on the Arkansas charge of perjury (which of course, is an admission of guilt) in the suit filed by Paula Jones. This resulted in his law license being temporarily suspended, which would be a big deal if he wasn’t, y’know, a two-term President.

    Hillary has skated by for years because liberals in the MSM don’t want to get into the implications of her dishonesty not just about her marriage, but about her own legal troubles. This goes back years, beginning with her dismissal from the legal team investigating Richard Nixon to the Rose Law Firm to the miraculous/mysterious cattle future fortune to Whitewater to the firing of the travel office on false charges to the question of who hired Craig Livingstone to the 2008 campaign lie about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia to her cluelessness and lack of culpability about Benghazi. Those are issues that have to do with Hillary as a First Lady, a quasi-cabinet official, a U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State — she owns those scandals, 100%. Don’t let her deflect from those by letting her suggest that you’re trying to blame her for defending Bill. It’s stupid.

  16. ginny
    March 6th, 2014 @ 2:37 pm

    I think Cruz is impressive too, but his insistence in shutting down the government over the impossibility of not funding ACA (instead of insisting on other things Obama would also veto but which were wildly supported by the American people, like refusing the medical device tax, for instance) calls his judgment into question; it did damage to the Republican brand and made him a very divisive figure. Dr. Carson would be a uniter (he has a book coming out in May entitled “ONE NATION”), of both political factions and racial tensions, which are worse than ever under Obama. I’d like Cruz or Susana Martinez to be his VP.

  17. ginny
    March 6th, 2014 @ 2:43 pm

    Good points. Better to lead by example, nominating Ben Carson as POTUS (and Ted Cruz or Susana Martinez as VP?), and really get behind other great candidates like Mia Love (in Utah.) Also, did you know that Herman Cain was polling 40% among blacks — against Obama! Dr. Carson truly lives Martin Luther King’s dreams (another Republican.) He truly will NOT let anybody’s race be an excuse for failure or bad behavior. What a breath of fresh air! Even if he doesn’t win the nomination, to have him in the race (and the debates) would be such a pleasure!

  18. ginny
    March 6th, 2014 @ 2:58 pm

    You might be right about his political vulnerabilities. His left wing opponents (not to mention the activist press) will be vicious but I don’t believe Carson has any past extramarital affairs, tax problems, etc. Democrats, as you pointed out, can overcome the worst actions (Hillary included), Republicans cannot. I just want him to get in the race. If he can’t handle the slime/slugfest that our political process has become, so be it. Then it’s Walker all the way for me. (btw, getting a standing ovation from Congress after his NPB speech with Obama sitting right there, was no mean feat!

  19. Liberals are Bolsheviks
    March 6th, 2014 @ 3:45 pm

    I don’t understand why feel the need to attempt to prove that you’re not a racist.

    It cannot be proven and trying to prove it is a waste of precious time, resources, and materials that could be used for effectively going after those who are openly waging ideological warfare against our sacred Constitution.

  20. ginny
    March 6th, 2014 @ 5:11 pm

    I don’t know anyone who got excited about Carson because he’s black. He never talks about it (in fact, it’s one of the reasons a black homeless activist I’ve known for years doesn’t like Carson because he doesn’t make race an issue, nor do we. If we can’t promote his qualifications without being charged with trying to prove we’re not racists, then you’re falling into the same trap that the liberals love to set for us — we can’t be against Hillary’s candidacy without being anti-woman. Sigh. How about our side not participating in that circus, and let’s discuss the real issues. The fact that Carson is black is a bonus, but it’s way, way down on the list of why we’re supporting him.

  21. cmdr358
    March 6th, 2014 @ 9:10 pm

    You want a more substantial response? Okay.
    F¿king Troll.

  22. ginny
    March 7th, 2014 @ 1:35 am

    Ooh, that’s a good one. I’ll have to remember that. Oh, but I forgot — “troll” is now just another epitaph like “Nazi” that means the person has no good arguments so they have to resort to name-calling like 3-year-olds. Game over, as in “you lose.”