Excellent conference in spite of everything. Last year they were saying the libertarians hijacked the conference, but when I saw the itinerary, I guessed that this would be the year that the neocons took it right back. No Ron Paul booth or group, no libertarian groups or organizations, no John Birch society. I came with my father (his first time) and brother, and when we realized there was no JBS booth, my father called our local leader and we were told that last year, Karl Rove confiscated their anti-Gingrich newsletter and told them he'd see that they never came back to the very conference of which they were co-sponsors two years ago, when the movement was just recovering from the Democratic landslide that resulted from Rove's & his president's brilliant term of office. So we seemed to have been right.

In spite of all of that, the conference was still fun and there were some good speakers.
Rand Paul, of course, seems like a smoother version of his father, with a wig.
Herman Cain, while saying the right things, came off as a guy who might be a little too practical and smart, and sure of both things, to get anywhere in politics. He just wants to "fix" stuff, without having any sort of firm government principles to adhere to, which is the best mindset for getting captured by the system.
Bobby Jindal was spectacular. I went out of his speech and wrote him in for vice-president in the Straw Poll. He was ideologically correct, he was specific in his claims of accomplishments and goals and he spoke well about his topics. And despite hearing speeches by two Kentucky Senators, Texans, Virginians and Georgians, he had the most humorously stereotypical accent.

Dinesh D'Souza followed him with a speech basically promoting the thesis of his last book, which is an analysis of Obama's ideology. He phrases it in a very mild way, basically rejecting the notions of socialism or Keynesian economics, or Black Power-esque affirmative action, or clandestine "Islamofascist" but rather suggesting Obama is an anti-colonialist like the opponents of the British in Kenya or India. When you think about it however, it is actually one of the scariest possibilities, as it implies a kind of leveling mentality aimed at destroying America's prosperity and power: if he can't bring other nations up to our level, he'll bring us down to theirs, or a mixture of the two so we can meet somewhere in the middle.

Daniel Hannan was someone I just heard because we were holding our seats in order to hear Sarah Palin as the closing speaker, and he was arguably one of the greatest speeches I heard all weekend. He was engaging, he was funny, he was right on target, and he brought a perspective which he was uniquely qualified to give from his national viewpoint, and he cited the Constitution better than the average American speaker or even political science wonk. He makes me want to emmigrate to the UK to vote for him. Just about the only English people I know are historical figures or my aunt who has lived here all my life, or some of the members of this community, from which I get the impression that they are a nice, if slightly weird nation. After his speech, I felt like I had to revise my estimation of the rankings of the lesser Anglophonic peoples.

Also from that neck of the woods was a woman who ran onto the stage for an obvious, last-minute-approved, impassioned appeal for support for her documentary on fracking. She too, though not as polished or ideologically brilliant, was hilarious and superb, and we got a chance to speak to her afterwards, including pointing her to some John Birch Society literature on that very issue a couple months back. She peaked out from a balcony later in the day during Hannan's speech, making me wonder if they knew one another (intellectually, I know it's not THAT small of a country, but part of my brain remembers the board game Axis & Allies, where you can't fit two planes on Great Britain).

It's one thing to revile Winston Churchill and let that contempt kind of bleed onto the country with which he is inextricably entwined in any history buff's mind, but it's another thing entirely to have British people coming over here and telling you how great your country is and pleading with you to not let your natural resources and traditional Anglo-traditional freedoms slip through your fingers.

There was also Ann Coulter, who had a few funny things to say, but unfortunately this was an election year, and she had to stick in her oar about the candidates and prove why her kind (women, WASPS, lawyers, neocons, apostates...take your pick) should never have been given the vote. I got shake her hand at the book signing afterwards, and it was very small and cool, despite her being something approaching normal height and friendly enough. The volunteer people got all snooty about my wanting more than one autograph, but she was just effusive in her delight when I explained that the other one (on a Conservative Women calender) was for my pregnant sister-in-law, who is the real Ann Coulter family. My sister-in-law was thrilled too, when she heard that "Ann KNOWS about me!" Eh, chicks. Even when they're supposed to be all about conservative values, they still stick together, and never listen when you explain how Ronald Reagan was just too liberal to vote for in good conscience.

Other fun stuff - my father explaining to a young woman there about how Rick Santorum is a hypocrite and voted for Planned Parenthood funds at least once, and could not be trusted to keep his promises, only to have my brother tell him afterwards that he was talking to Santorum's daughter.
- A Newton coming around offering us Gingrich stickers, and us telling him "No thanks. We're conservative." He must have got that a lot because he snapped "oh, hey, thanks. That smart-ass answer was really helpful." Heh, heh.
- Ann Coulter asking if I was in college. I was a bit affronted at first, pointing out that I'm not a liberal to still be hiding out in academia at my age, but afterwards I realized I had a Ron Paul button, and her crowd thinks mine's just a bunch of semi-adolescent pothead kids. Stereotypes can be hurtful.
- The Occupy Whatever protesters attempting to riot outside the hotel. Whenever the leftwingers lie about the violence at a Tea Party rally and talk about how scared they were, I feel kind of contemptuous, embracing as I always do the chance to fight opponents in self-defense, but then I have to wonder if I ended up in the wrong movement, seeing as now none of us have ever managed to get arrested for violence at our rallies. The scene at the hotel justified my faith in my fellow believers, however, because rather than be scared or horrified, the CPAC attendees were all running out to take pictures and cheer on the fight between the mounted cops and rioters. Then a bunch of obnoxious children tried to disrupt Palin's speech and I got a good view of them being escorted out by the cops. I have NEVER heard of conservatives pulling this crap at liberal events or conventions, much less attacking Occupy protests. Even Obama's own justice department lists environmentalists as the main source of domestic terrorism.

Finally, at the end of the conference, we had Sarah Palin's speech. During the beginning of it, I began to think that I now know how the long-time liberals, who had studied their stuff and gone to meetings and demonstrations and wrote letters and argued their cause for years felt during the Obama campaign, when hordes of mindless idiots and screamed and cheered the completion of each sentence by this anointed twit who wandered in with less than a full term of significant office under his or her belt to be hailed as a rock star savior or something. There were women getting hysterical when Palin said "WTF? " It was like little kids hearing their first curse in a PG-13 movie! A couple of times her metaphors got away from her and went no where or her witticisms fell flat, but she got a belly-laugh anyway. As for content, it was just your standard whip-up-the-class-warfare sentiments, only aimed in the other direction this time. Even Palin seemed to get tired of the excessive ovations, trying to continue her point over the cheers. Despite the aforementioned UK & southern accents, hers was also the most annoying, and the elementary content of the speech didn't help the "dumb" image, and make it sound like a really condescending grade school teacher explaining politics to her class.

Also, when riding an open-topped double-decker tour bus, you need to stay in your seat, or duck fast when you come up one a low-hanging tree branch. My father and I did, but my brother's failure to do so was the highlight of our first day in the city.

Anyway, I'm passing through the Trenton station now, so we're pretty close to civilization. Later.