Acton Republican Town Committee

By Sue and Jim Ettwein

General comments:

Overall theme heard from the speakers:  The Conservative Movement is alive and well, no thanks to the Republican Party.  We let the elections take us away from our principles, ideas, and central focus.  The American people became confused, and we lost their support.

Conservatives can continue to talk and complain and be nice gentlemen and ladies… and we’ll all wake up someday under communist rule. 

It’s obvious to us that the conservatives there definitely feel that we are not aligned with the Republican Party as we should be.   The party is so concerned with pleasing everyone, it’s lost its focus and fire. 

There were no specific mentions of how they might provide local support.  There were some instances where they said it was important to identify and run local candidates for office.  They all expressed sympathy when they saw we were from Massachusetts. J 

Notable in their absence:

Michael Steele – the supposed leader of the Republican Party doesn’t even show up.  Even though he didn’t hear it live, with the 18 standing ovations, he later apologizes for Rush’s speech (showing a lack of backbone) and later apologizes to Rush for his apology… showing less backbone.  Anyone there to hear Rush would never apologize… the audience was riveted, focused and totally aligned with Rush’s message.  Including the “I hope he fails” message.  We should all hope he fails if we’re true to the conservative theme.  To hope otherwise is to give up our principles.

Sarah Palin – How could she not show up at CPAC.  (no answer)

Best Speakers:

Rush Limbaugh – brought down the house.  Slated to speak for 20 mins… went for 90.  If you haven’t heard it, find it on youtube.com and watch it all.  He was amazing.

Wayne LaPierre – Always one of the best speakers at CPAC.  He did not disappoint this time either.  He demonstrated that Obama is at the forefront of  strong gun control and confiscation, both personally and through Rahm Emmanuel.

Newt Gingrich – Excellent theme.  A little conciliatory and looking to tailor the message in order to get elected.  Definitely a star among the attendees.  I think Rush eclipsed him easily.  Both for strength of arguable position, and for mass appeal and ability to speak for the largest base.

John Bolton – awesome speaker, super strong message, right on message.  He felt the Obama administration would eventually give in to the UN.  His message was scary due to its intrinsic truth.

Other speakers:

Panel with Bay Buchanan – fired up.  Excellent speaker.

Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Tim Pawlenty  – Young strong conservative, self-assured, right message about sticking to your principles.

John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell,  Jim DeMint, John Boehner, Tom Coburn – very strong conservative viewpoint.  Tough against libs and Obama. 

Two-Minute Activist – a very encouraging session that there are so many young people who are so devoted to the cause.  They are today’s Republican Party and need to get out the word and do the job.  Notable among these 15 or so stories… Jonathan Krohn, author of Define Conservatism.  Krohn is only 13 years old, had amazing poise and spoke better than many of the adults in the room.  Find him on youtube.com and hear him speak.

Elaine Chao – Definitely a strong conservative.  Excellent speaker, right on message. Talked about the union card check program.

Bill Bennett – As always a great speaker.  Focused on education. Was a little bit less inflammatory than other major speakers.

Ann Coulter – enough said.

Ward Connerly – Very, very good presenter.  Spoke strongly about the need to move on past the considerations of race.