Residual Forces

Good morning. I am now at the conference. Looks like it should be a great day. For any of you at home pondering if it is worth it, trust me it is.

8:00 Annette Meeks will be opening up the conference any minute now.

At 9:00 Tony Fabrizio (Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Assoc.)
“How conservative are we?”
with a Q&A

At 10:30 Michael Barone, author, The Almanac of American Politics
with a Q&A

Noon lunch buffet with Sen. Norm Coleman

1:15 Governor Tim Pawlenty

1:45 Ever Wonder What the Left is Doing in Minnesota? Here’s the Answer
Brad Jones, Managing Editor, FacetheState.com

2:30 How Do We Define Success for Conservatives in Minnesota?
Jason Lewis

3:00 It looks like there will be a panel discussion with
Bob Ward, Sn. VP Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Assoc.
Sen. David Hann
Rep. Mary Liz Holberg
Rep. Paul Kohls
Ron Carey, Chair, Republican Party of Minnesota

4:00 Freedom Fair
Freedom Foundation of Minnesota
Minnesota Academy for Conservative Leadership
Citizens’ Council on Healthcare
Minnesota majority
Minnesota Free Market Institute
Institute for Justice

This coincides with the cocktail reception from 4 to 5:30

The gala dinner and keynote speech start at 5:45
Former Congressman Vin Weber

8:15
Meeks is just now opening the day. She is saying the point of this meeting is not to lecture. It is to listen to conservatives from around the state.

She is also pointing out that the conservative movement isn’t about electoral politics. It is something that works for lasting changes that may take years. That is the real difference between conservatism and the Republican party if you ask me. The party is solely focussed on elections.

9:00
Tony Fabrizio
He is giving a little stump speech for Tim Pawlenty. Saying we are very fortunate to have him here. I think he may want to move on, this is supposed to be a conservative conference.

“The most important issue position that defines a person as being a conservative is _______________?”

He’s asking for responses because he is saying that most of the time when people define themselves as conservatives, it is for different things or at odds with others idea of conservatism.

9:16
(Still with Fabrizio)
I’m not so sure this is what the people who came here were expecting. He’s basically making the case that true conservatives can’t win, especially in Minnesota.

9:32
(Still with Fabrizio)
This is the man behind Tim Pawlenty. We’re pretty much hearing what has made Tim Pawlenty into the politicians he is today.

Fabrizio is a pollster, mind you.

(I’ll have some more thoughts on this segment later tonight.)

During the break, a lot of dedicated readers of ResidualForces came up to say hello and to keep up the good work. I did check on the road conditions outside, and it is looking like I will have to pull out of here early, some time after or during lunch.

10:30
Michael Barone
So far, a good speech. Don’t really agree with him on some points. But entertaining, and informative.

One of his main points is that conservatism has solved problems in the past, and the conservatism of old, IE Reaganism or Goldwater, can’t be brought back.

(AAA’s commentary) I for one agree that many of their issues are history. Now Goldwater was before my time, and I was only 5 when Reagan took on Jimmy Carter, but he inspired me. He made me interested in things, and began my long road to conservatism. So when he says we can’t go back to Reagan, I agree, but the conservative movement does need to find a new Reagan.

We do need to take today’s issues and try to solve them as conservatives. But they key to that, is not polling, or quota based electoral politics, but rather find someone who not only can defend conservative policy issues, but also has the ‘gravitas’ that Reagan did to get more 5 year old kids to think about things, as well as those voters who don’t really know the facts that they think they are basing their votes and personal policy positions on.

“markets work, morals matter, America must be strong in the world”

That’s his simplistic motto, if you will, to base our message on. The key to conservatives is to find a way to explain that to voters. And at this point, Barone does explain that the current crop of GOP Presidential candidates needs to figure out how to get better at doing that. So we may actually agree after all.

11:20
Now he lost me again. He said he supports Amnesty. He supports enforcement through border security. And thinks workplace enforcement is the biggest prohibitor. But… he does support ‘regularization’.

11:30
he concluded with a sample of the people in the room for their choice in GOP candidates.
Fred Thompson won. He then said someone needs to wake Fred up and let him know.

11:50
We’re just finishing up the Q & A which has been really quite good.

Looking at the weather, I think that I have to pull the plug here, and get to work.

Thanks to the Freedom Foundation of MN for the gracious offer to be here. Sorry I have to go early.

2:14PM

It was a good thing I bolted when i did. It took me an hour and a half to make the 25 minute trip up to work from the Conference. I just managed to get some salt sand down and to the landscaping store before they closed today to replenish the supply.

i’ll be plowing snow here most of the afternoon and evening, so more of my thoughts from the first half of the day will probably have to wait until tomorrow sometime.