The Mood at CPAC on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

by Mark Rhoads

I attended a dinner last night at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. I did not get there until about 5 pm after the speeches by Romney, McCain, and Ron Paul. There were several thousand people wearing the CPAC ID name tags but I was told only 500 could be admitted to the room where those speeches were made. The speeches were covered live by CSPAN, CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC. While in Virginia earlier in the day, I saw both the Romney and McCain speeches live on CNN. Both seemed to me to have a very positive message but of course McCain had the more difficult assignment of trying to make his points and still honestly acknowledge his mistakes and differences of opinion with some, but not all, of the conservatives attending.

All delegates that I talked to who were in the room thought the Romney speech was the best he ever made.  The reception for McCain was at first formal, polite, and cool from some.  He got a smattering of boos when he just mentioned the words "illegal immigration."  But the rest of his speech, in the opinion of those who were in the room, got better and better as it went along to cover national security, the appointments of judges, making the Bush tax cuts permanent, and pro-life issues.  By the end of the McCain speech, the applause was genuine and enthusiastic and more than just polite.  I was impressed by the fact that so many college age students were attending the CPAC on scholarships.  I suppose I saw about 2,000 people wandering around the very large lobby and halls on the first floor.  In general, the delegates told me the CPAC was filled with very interesting speakers. George Will also spoke last night.  President Bush speaks early this morning and the conference will end on Saturday.

Comments

Kevin McCullough former WMBI host reported on the radio that before CPAC attenedees (who payed a very handsome price for there tickets) were allowwed into the room where John McCain was going to give his speech, It was first PASCKED OUT with 2 bus loads of John McCain supporters. Then the "OTHER" attendees were allowed in.

[rightwinger]

I noticed that watching it on TV. The first few rows (if not more) were filled with McCain supporters.

[spintreebob]

Packing the audience is standard politics 101 for most every campaign. The audience is not intended to be spectators of a presentation from the platform. The audience are part of the presentation.

The shock is the naivete of those who presume that a "town hall meeting" or any audience anywhere would be spectators rather than players.

[rightwinger]

Not naive at all. Just my a comment/stating the obvious. The other obvious thing, his apperance/speech didn't really mean much. Just for show.

When he brought up illegal immigration and the crowd booed. He would've probably been better off, just letting the boos go and not have his supporters try drowning it out with cheers. That looked bad as far as showing the naive people that the crowd was stacked. If he would've just let them boo and then answered, try to mend fences would've been better. Having a boo/cheer debate isn't going to help matters. Probably shouldn't have had the McCain signs too. At least not all congregated in the front.

[Mark Rhoads]

I talked to people who were in the room both when Romney spoke and when McCain spoke. No one said anything about packing the house with supporters of one or the other but it was natural that partisans would get in line first. One Romney and one McCain person both told me the first row was reserved for special guests of the candidates and that applied to Ron Paul also. You cannot have it both ways, if the room was packed with McCain people then there should not have been any boos at all. By the way, many mother used to teach their children that it is stupid and immature to boo anyone for any reason, especially if you are hosting a guest speaker just because they differ with you on some issues.