Sunday, March 04, 2007

A Few CPAC Notes   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

First off, apologies for that bad Brownback number and a few stray characters invading The Corner earlier — wireless (incapablity) in the Omni Shoreham ballroom and bad eyesight make for a bad Corner poster. You can see the strawpoll results for yourself on CPAC's site.

I missed Duncan Hunter and Mike Huckabee but heard fairly positive things about both speeches.

Newt Gingrich was hands down the best of the buzzed-about 2008ers. I think he was prepping us for the Gingrich-Jeb Bush 2008 suprise of the year. Who would have thunk it? (Hey, this cycle is long, I'm trying to keep it interesting.) Some people would clearly like him too.

I was surprised by the reception Jim Gilmore got. He had red meat and it went over well. He assured he is the only conservative in the race and presented himself as a mini-president as governor of Virginia, a state attacked on 9/11. While I wouldn't bet money on Gilmore 2008 going very far, I think his speech added to the upbeat mood I thought permeated the conference. When everyone wants to win and thinks he can, a movement sees winning as a real possibility.

Brownback's story of the girl he adopted from China reminds everyone what that fight for life is about. It does make you appreciate he's in the mix inasmuch as he talks about the dignity of human life across the globe.

Romney really helped himself by giving the speech he did. He's got a disadvantage Giuliani and McCain don't have — he still has to introduce himself to people. If you saw him for the first time Friday, you got a good intro.

Rudy Giuliani may have been the real winner of this thing though — that he did as well as he did with a self-identified conservative crowd. His speech had both an overarching theme and great moments — that frankly surpassed anyone else at one moment in particular. No one but Giuliani can give the defense of the Patriot Act and NSA surveillance that he did — comparing it to prosecuting the mafia. But I also had the sense he didn't put a tremendous effort into his appearance — whereas Romney and Brownback had both people and signs, there were no Giuliani signs — and I even had the sense his speech was half-hearted, maybe because of fatigue. Imagine had he put in a full-fledged effort. That said, there would have been something off-putting about Rudy winning a conservative straw poll. But coming in second, without bussing anyone in — that's not nothing.

The only two who had people openly hostile to them were McCain (in absentia) and Romney (FLIP FLOP said the dolphin again and again). Do with that what you will. Pay respects or else? And: We don't welcome converts?

People not in town keep asking me: "Are they as depressed as it sounds?" Nope. Not from what I saw and heard. These politically active people for the most part aren't totally whipped up by anyone. But they hear things they like and are considering — and appreciate the candidates who stopped by. Yeah, sure, they would like a reincarnated Reagan, but they also don't live in a fantasyworld. They want a leader and they wonder which of those before them might just be the one.

I heard some real concern about Romney — people just aren't sure what to believe, but they seem to have liked the speech and there seems to be an openness to liking him (but frequently accompanied by that worry about the past positions). There was a real hostility to McCain. Anyone who told me Brownback would cite life. And, yes, I ran into an occasional Tancredo loyalist. No one I ran into really offered Rudy Giuliani as their guy — though many would acknowledge he might be "the one who can beat Hillary."

03/04 01:04 AMShare