The CPAC annual meeting has shown us that we on the right do not have a front-runner or even a plausible candidate to unite us as we head into the crucial 2012 presidential and congressional elections.
In fact, CPAC demonstrated that the organized right, which sold its soul to a faux conservative in 2000, G.W. Bush, and then supported him and an irresponsible GOP-run Congress as they partnered to bankrupt our public fisc and squander our moral and military advantage for six years, is now devoid of a true conservative who understands and believes in the principles that separate us from the squishy middle and the out-of-touch left.
First, this CPAC event shamed itself by inviting Donald Trump to speak.
He is not, nor has he ever been a conservative. How quickly CPAC organizers forget Trump’s support of and praise for both Bill and Hillary Clinton in all their campaigns — as well as the scores of other liberal Democrats he has financed in states where he has business interests.
This is someone to be listened to? Especially as he trashes the one candidate, Ron Paul, who has maintained steady and consistent principles for over 30 years?
Last Sunday we celebrated the 100th birthday of America’s greatest conservative leader, Ronald Reagan. But by Thursday we were listening to Donald Trump comment on public issues?
Do we need any more proof how far off the rails the right has gone?
As for the other possible GOP 2012 presidential candidates, it is clear none of them connected in any emotional way with the majority of conservative activists sitting in that hotel ball room over the weekend and who came to D.C. desperate to find a new leader.
Instead, the candidates demonstrated their ability to pander — and deliver their scripted anti-Obama rhetoric — but noneof them, other than Ron Paul, touched the souls of the thousands of activists who are the army of the right.
What is clear is that we do not have a candidate who can unite the right and win a majority of the crucial independent voters. Romney, Pawlenty, Huckabee, and Barbour? It doesn’t look like any of them can do it. Nor can the others we have seen.
They lack that special spark that could ignite a fire that could change the role of the federal government in our lives.
It may be that the GOP will again nominate another McCain or Dole and even both Bushes — uninspiring candidates. If we do, Obama will win a second term.
But maybe — somewhere, somehow — in the next year a new candidate will emerge who can bring the passion of the tea party and the legacy of the Republican Party together and give us a chance to save this country from the leftward lurch that threatens to bankrupt us all.
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