I’ve made arrangements to return to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington DC at the end of February, and will once again cover the conclave from Bloggers Row. This will be the third year in a row that I attend the conference, and the second time I stay at the Omni Shoreham hotel where it gets held. The first year, 2007, I stayed at a hotel across town that not only was inconvenient, the door to the massively shared balcony wouldn’t secure, and everyone surrounding me had parties all night long. I learned that saving a couple of bucks doesn’t necessarily mean a more pleasant experience.
I’ll be curious as to the tone of the conference this year. In 2007, we had just lost the midterms but the activists sounded hopeful that the Republican Party had finally gotten the message about greed, corruption, and big-government solutions. In 2008, when it became apparent that John McCain would win the presidential nomination, it got somewhat somber and reflective. In 2009, after losing that presidential race and watching both Republicans and Democrats empty the already-empty treasury to partially nationalize private industries, what should we expect? I’m betting on flat-out anger, as well as a sense of having to start from scratch.
The conference has already begun to lay down that foundation. They will feature a Conservatism 2.0 Conference at CPAC, organized by Pajamas TV. Michelle will take part in that effort. That should make for lively debate, and the folks at Pajamas Media will make sure that we have bloggers aplenty to write about it. I plan to move away from the daily show during CPAC in favor of live interviews with some of the newsmakers, as well as writing about the events in regular blog postings. Stay tuned from February 26-28 to see where the 37th CPAC conference takes us.
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