A big tent update

From New York Magazine:

When the Conservative Political Action Conference launches on February 10, the mood will be uncharacteristically flamboyant. Not only because the gay caucus GOProud will be prominently participating, but because the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, and other “values” organizations won’t be. Together, they’ve mounted a CPAC boycott, an effort to strip the newish homosexual element from the conservative coalition and part of a larger bid to forcibly remarry social and fiscal conservatives. The bet was that distaste for gay people themselves—as opposed to lightning rods like gay marriage or adoption, which aren’t included in GOProud’s platform—is still a strong right-wing motivator. It’s a bet they seem to have lost

Maybe it's just us but we see no contradiction nor conflict of interest in being supporters of traditional marriage while realizing that maybe, just maybe, there are quite a few gays out there that are concerned with matters beyond, you know, gay stuff.

The GOP and the conservative movement as a whole would do well to keep the doors open to those concerned with individual liberty and free markets and a hyper-active federal government that has been increasingly infringing upon the two former subjects regardless of race, sex, creed or sexual orientation.

....and moving right along (UPDATED!.. and UPDATED again)

A few more thoughts on the Sarah Palin RNCC Experience and hoping you aren’t paying any attention to that last post (good grief)…

We are now fully able to experience what it is that Obamaniacs have been experiencing for months now. That “thrill up the leg” feeling that comes from an unexperienced candidate bringing an uplifting and inspiring message from a completely scripted speech in front of a hopelessly devoted (worshipful?) crowd at an entirely choreographed affair is now ours. And goodness, it feels great!

Hey, didya hear someone else wrote Sarah Palin’s speech? Why did we keep hearing that last night and today? That, and the kissing cousin of the same, “her speech was made in an tightly controlled environment”. Well, its because no one that attractive, with 5 children and being the governor of a backwater no-fly-over state could come up with a speech that good. Folks, let’s just say that all this code-speak from the press and her liberal detractors has been, uhhh… enlightening?

Ken Blackwell, former secretary of state of Ohio and now on the RNC platform committee was on Hedgecock’s show yesterday and brought up the conventional wisdom of the Presidential candidate needing Ohio to win the election. He spoke of the gay marriage amendment being on the ballot back in ’04 that brought out Ohio conservatives which helped swing Ohio and ultimately the election to Bush. Since no such or similar initiative is on the ballot this time around, his exhortation was that Palin did not merely need to “energize the base, but turn-out the base, as well”. Last night was very definitely a step in the right direction.

So, some 40 years on from the begun-in-earnest “womens’ movement”, the fresh, new, relevant face of that movement is a conservative, pro-life, gun-toting, beauty-queen mother of five. Ditto that for the “conservative movement”. Only in America.

And Piper Palin has now supplanted gymnast Shawn Johsnon as the planet’s cutest living being.




Oh, we almost forgot – Sarah’s got herself a pastor controversy. She’s more like Suit than we thought… except for the fact that she’s at the bottom of the ticket instead of the top.

Lastly, we’re still waiting to hear from our intrepid RNCC correspondent, Mark, who called us last night to inform us that he scored tickets to the floor of the convention for all the speeches. He called us from the bus that was taking him back over the river from St. Paul to Minneapolis and his hotel and as we were talking the police halted the bus and told the driver to turn around and return to St. Paul as the rioters in Minneapolis were making things a bit too dicey for any Republican-carrying shuttle buses. Mark had no idea what he was going to do as it was around midnight and he had no backup plan. We suggested repairing to the nearest watering hole to imbibe and contemplate options. As of this writing and one message left, we haven’t heard from him. We hope he’s alright.

(UPDATE #1): So sorry. One more. Watching the beginning of McCain's speech it confirmed our suspicions of the brilliance of the strategy behind Palin's speech. McCain made some very nice, conciliatory gestures towards Camp Obama. With Palin's speech, Team McCain has effectively opened-up a two-front offensive on Obama. McCain can engage Obama on one, more Presidential level, while at the same time Suit wonders just who the hell this, this, this self-described "pit-bull" of a woman is who has got a hold of his ankle and just won't let it go!

(UPDATE #2): We're too beat to provide an analysis of McCain's speech but KT has a nice wrap-up, here. And B-Daddy has irrefutable video proof that Andrea Mitchell was blitzed out of her gourd last night while interviewing Rudy Guiliani. Sweet.