What vision will the GOP field of presidential candidates offer?: Erick Erickson

The New Orleans Times-Picayune ^ | May 15, 2015 | Erick Erickson

[2ndDivisionVet]

A surreal moment passed for me this week with several press reports about presidential candidates heading to Atlanta in August this year. Six years ago in Atlanta, a group of online political activists got together in person. They had been online collaborators among the Republican grassroots for six years without ever having met face to face.

In May 2009, I put up a post at RedState.com, where I had taken over the helm as editor-in-chief. "Who wants to get together for a beer in Atlanta?" I asked. More than 500 people said yes. I scrambled. My friend Caleb Howe volunteered to help. He arranged a hotel and catering, and helped set up a registration website. Then I had to tell my bosses at our parent company what I was doing.

That first year, some unknown candidates, who the conservative grassroots were backing, showed up. The Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz was there. He was thinking about a run for office. The former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives was there, Marco Rubio. I had endorsed him for the Senate. A state representative from South Carolina, Nikki Haley, came. She was running for governor of South Carolina. The former congressman and head of the Club for Growth, Pat Toomey, came. He would challenge Arlen Specter for the Republican Senate nomination in Pennsylvania. Vice President Cheney's daughter, Liz, came, too.

Two years later, in 2011, Gov. Rick Perry would use the RedState Gathering as the staging ground to declare his run for the presidency....

[Uncle Miltie]

What vision will the GOP field of presidential candidates offer?

A: One per candidate.

Idiot.

[PatriotWave]

Does anybody even read Red State anymore ?

I mean that as a serious question ... Their comment section is like a ghost town. I had just assumed the website had been abandoned for the most part.