Posted on 02/06/2008 9:19:48 AM PST by STARWISE
First time in 35-Year History CPAC Hosts Both Officeholders
ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the nation's oldest and largest annual gathering of conservative activists, students and policymakers, announced that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will address conference attendees at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.
This is the first time in the event’s 35-year history that both the sitting President and Vice President have addressed the attendees.
Vice President Cheney will speak on Thursday, February 7 at 11:00 a.m.
President Bush will speak on Friday, February 8 at 10:20 a.m.
CPAC Chairman David A. Keene said, “We are delighted that conservatives will have the opportunity to welcome both President Bush and Vice President Cheney this year. It will be a great opportunity for thousands of conservatives, particularly the large number of students from across the country who attend, to hear from the president in person and evaluate the accomplishments of his administration.”
~~~
CPAC is a project of the American Conservative Union Foundation, in association with Young America's Foundation and Human Events. The conference is cosponsored by over 90 of the nation's leading conservative organizations. For continued updates on the program or to register online, visit www.cpac.org.
...But are they “pleased” to welcome McPain?
I know I’m not!
According to my source, McCain has prepared a video featuring President Ronald Reagan to make the introduction. If McCain uses this video, it is very likely to backfire badly. This is the group before which Ronald Reagan said in 1975 that, “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.”
Sounds like this is going to be a CPAC conference for the history books!
Wish I was there!
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24859
McCain Didn’t Close The Deal
Excerpt:
~~~
Tomorrow, both McCain and Romney will address the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC. (Huckabee will appear on Saturday morning).
The speech McCain will give could be the best opportunity McCain will have to reach out to conservatives and bring them into the fold before the September 1-4 Minneapolis Republican convention.
One source told me last night that McCain is planning an all-out push at CPAC.
At 3 pm tomorrow, McCain is scheduled to address the crowd expected to number over 6,000 activists. And McCain plans a very special introduction.
According to my source, McCain has prepared a video featuring President Ronald Reagan to make the introduction. If McCain uses this video, it is very likely to backfire badly.
This is the group before which Ronald Reagan said in 1975 that, “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.”
Very few of the 2008 CPAC crowd will see McCain as the successor to Reagan and Reagan’s principles. McCain has sacrificed conservatives’ fundamental beliefs throughout his Senate career. If McCain uses this introduction, the boos will be very loud.
McCain faces a real quandary. If he fails at CPAC — and doesn’t win the CPAC straw poll (he finished dead last in 2007) — the word will be out that the conservatives are off his team this year.
The results of the poll will be announced at about 2 pm Saturday. McCain can do a few things at CPAC that could help.
First, he could throw away the Reagan video introduction. If he uses it at CPAC — a house that Reagan built — he could alienate a large portion of the conservatives he needs.
Second, he could say a lot more than he has so far on three key issues: Supreme Court appointments, the war and illegal immigration.
By January 2009, more than half of the Supreme Court justices will be over the age of 70. It’s likely that the next president will have four or five nominations, especially if he (or she) is a two-term president.
After the reports of McCain’s dismissive remarks about the conservatism of Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito (reported last week by Bob Novak and John Fund) McCain must convince conservatives that the justices he would try to appoint would be of the same judicial temperament as Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.
McCain must say clearly and concisely that he would only appoint justices whose views are strict constructionist and that he would fight to get them through a Democrat-dominated Senate.
On the war, McCain needs to say more than just repeat his commitment to the troop surge. The surge is already ending and by late spring, most of the combat power committed to the surge will have to be withdrawn because we lack the troop strength to sustain it.
What comes next is vital to success, and McCain needs to describe what he intends to do. He needs to say something like what Rudy Giuliani said throughout his aborted campaign: that America will remain on offense against terrorists and the nations that support them.
Third, and most importantly to many conservatives, McCain must argue convincingly that he really did learn the lessons conservatives taught him at great pains to both sides.
He has said that he knows border security must come first, but his answers to questions both on Meet the Press and in the CNN debate before the Florida primary were evasive.
Will he sign legislation that establishes a path to citizenship for the 12 to 20 million illegals already here? If he doesn’t commit to rejecting that idea, he will not win over the conservative community he needs to win in November.
Presidential campaigns are like the life of a pilot: hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer panic. They have become a seemingly-endless marathon punctuated by sprints like the one preceding Super Tuesday. But this week’s sprint isn’t over.
For John McCain, the finish line is at CPAC, after his Thursday speech. McCain has to finish first at CPAC or risk a disunited party this fall.
~~~~
Since Cheney’s speaking before him, I expect a few of his
inimitably witty comments to land on McCain’s backside... should be good.
GMTA .. was posting that when
you posted. The whole piece
is right on target.
Will this be played on Cspan?
Awww .. they didn’t ask you first?
Ping!
Never mind- I’ve looked on CPAC and CSpan sites- doesn’t look like we’ll get to watch it live..
They usually show CPAC, problem
is: their website is so hard to
traverse and their printed
schedules so unpredictable, you
have to be Carnac to actually find
the program you want to see.
Please ping me if you see it, and
I’ll do the same.
I’ll be there this week/weekend. I’m looking forward to it, especially to see people’s reaction to McNightmare. I hope people aren’t receptive.
CPAC 2008 To Feature All Four Remaining GOP Presidential Candidates
Huckabee, McCain, Paul and Romney to seek conservative support at nation’s largest annual gathering of activists, students and policymakers
ALEXANDRIA, VA — Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Chairman David A. Keene announced that in addition to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, CPAC 2008 will feature all four remaining Republican candidates for President.
The candidates will appear at the following times over the course of the three-day conference to be held from February 7-9, 2008 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C.:
***
Thursday, February 7
Vice President Dick Cheney - 11:00 AM
Governor Mitt Romney - 12:30 PM
Senator John McCain - 3:00 PM
Congressman Ron Paul - 4:30 PM
***
Friday, February 8
President George W. Bush - 10:20 AM
***
Saturday, February 9
Governor Mike Huckabee - 9:00 AM
~~~~
“One of CPAC’s goals is to provide students and grassroots activists the opportunity to further educate themselves on candidates’ positions on the various social, defense, free market and foreign policy issues important to them,” said Keene.
“That being said, hosting both the current President and Vice President and the four frontrunners for the GOP nomination reflect the fact that for more than 30 years CPAC has been — and will continue to be — the must-attend event for candidates seeking conservative support,” concluded Keene.
Great! PLEASE post a report and ping me .. ;)
What difference does it make what he says on this issue? We all know what he's going to do. If he says anything to the contrary, it will be a lie.
We expect C-SPAN to be there, but we don't know if it will be gavel-to-gavel coverage.
Great post!
“McCain must argue convincingly that he really did learn the lessons conservatives taught him at great pains to both sides.”
I don’t give a hoot what he says. His words mean nothing at this point.
Thanks for the info:)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.