CPAC Recap

The last two days were a blast at the American Conservative Union's annual CPAC. Some interesting, humorous, and great speeches. I rediscovered my twitter account and it was fun to have a running commentary of events from participants in-hand during speeches and events.

Instead of commenting on individual speeches, lasting opinions will give a better summation.

One of the most interesting dynamics was the applause pattern during the speeches - Diamond vs. Student. The Diamond section represents those who pay for the premium event passes and have priority seating front and center. The Diamond club is generally older, wealthier, and more Neo/Traditionally conservative. The students get passes for $35 and usually get seat out in the wings of the ballroom. So, different topics and one-liners aroused passion from the different sections, and the subsequent applause and what-not was evident.

Pawlenty (T-Paw), Barbour, Santorum, Trump, Paul, and Johnson all will not get the nomination. Cain greatly improved his positive name recognition, though I was personally disappointed we didn't get free Godfather's pizza when he spoke. Romney looked and sounded presidential. Coulter and Breitbart were hilarious. We has a surprise appearance by the "rent is too damn high guy." Daniels spoke to the crowd as adults and took the problems facing us seriously. I think Allen West will be on any VP short list.

The Paulite libertarians were always out in presence, evident from stickers, shouts, applause, and of course the straw poll.

Coulter made a very interesting comment in her Q&A segment - "If Christie doesn't run, Romney will be the nominee and we'll lose." Very interesting.