I want to begin by thanking Erick Erickson and RedState for sponsoring Bloggers Lounge.
As I walked around the historic Marriott Wardman Park, listened to the speakers, sat in on workshops, wandered through the Exhibit Hall and interviewed a few of the 10,000 attendees, I was struck by what a difference a year makes.
A year ago, conservatives were “moribund and on the run.” Progressives were triumphant and proclaimed a “permanent Democratic majority.”
After losses in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, conservatives are energized and on the move. As Bill Bennett observed:
You’re either playing offense or defense. Conservatives are on offense. We are moving the ball on them.While the mainstream media focus on the differences among conservatives, Andrew Breitbart threw down the gauntlet:
Look mainstream media, the jig is up. We figured you out. You’re not on our team. You’re on the progressives’ team. We tried to play nice with you and nice is over.
[…]
You pit us against each other. We are going to come after you so hard. You have no idea what you have awoken in this country.
Sure, tea partiers and conservatives don’t agree on every issue. But they are united in the belief that my enemy’s enemy is my friend.
The CPAC straw poll results show that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, “two of the three horses of the Apocalypse,” are their common enemy.
During his presentation, pollster Tony Fabrizio noted:
Indeed, with the midterm elections eight months away, conservatives are united in their determination to rock the House and Senate.This CPAC had the largest number of straw poll participants in CPAC history; just shy of 2400 participants.
[…]
More than half of this movement feel that we’re within striking distance of taking back. That’s a tremendous amount of optimism. While the Democrats are feeling dejected, we are obviously feeling optimistic and pumped up.
