Blogging CPAC: Conservative Roadkill
CPAC 2008 CHAPTER ONE: Initial Impressions
I’m not much into omens, but the first visual indication I had prognosticating the outcome of CPAC was laying in the gutter at the corner of 24th and Calvert NW.
Last year at CPAC, the Washington Times used their CPAC Day One front page to lambast John McCain for being too chicken to show at CPAC. This year, their front page story suggests that he needs to woo the right.
While CPAC hasn’t officially started yet, there are already a lot of people here and the hustle and bustle of GOP presidential politics is in the air. I walked across the Exhibit Hall looking for some friends to store my laptop for me, and decided check out the Conservatives for John McCain booth.
Guess what? Despite the fact that hundreds and hundreds of people are here already, I couldn’t find a single McCain conservative. As a matter of fact, their booth was empty, as the picture below (click to enlarge) depicts. If I find a McCain conservative at CPAC, I’ll try to interview him or her. As these are hot button topics for me, I’ll be curious about the McCainian “conservative” defense of McCain-Feingold, as well has his refusal to sign Grover Norquist’s pledge.
UPDATE: I did just find a conservative McCain—but it was a McCain of a different order. This McCain was Robert Stacy McCain of the Washington Times, a man who actually likes to cut taxes and spending and despises First Amendment restrictions.
If CPAC participants and leadership end up responding responding to McCain positively, perhaps they should change the name of their future conferences to NeoPAC.
