The Conservative Movement is ALIVE!

I do realize that I did promise that I would update you all every night of the CPAC. However, as you will learn while reading this, I was extremely exhausted by the end of the day and had no will-power to stay up any later than I did. Anyways, this is an update of the rest of the CPAC.

Day 2 at the CPAC:
I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. This day was basically set-up day for the entire day. We were supposed to be up and in one of the ballrooms by 9:30, not too bad considering what was to come in the next 3 days. In the ballroom we were told that we will be stuffing CPAC bags, 10,000 bags to be exact. With about 50 volunteers all spread out putting the contents in the bag one would think that it wouldn’t take too long. Well, your assumption is wrong. We were stuffing bags from 10 until 4pm with about a 30 minute lunch break. The contents of the bag varied from magazines to newspapers to flyers. I did manage to get one bag and the items are interesting.

The best part of bag-stuffing day was the two special guests that came and gave us a little talk. The first guest was Mit Romney! It was a complete surprise and I was glad that I had my camera with me to get some good pictures. His little speech was basically him thanking us for the hard work that we are and were about to do to make the CPAC happen. Mit even explained that volunteering on various campaigns and at political organizations is how he got started in politics. I think he actually got started in politics from his father, but that is a different topic. Well Romney was a complete surprise. I don’t think anyone was expecting the next guest either. About 2 hours after Mit came, maybe earlier, we were told another special guest would like to talk to us. In comes Wayne LaPierre, the chairman of the NRA. This was just as exciting and once again, I was lucky to have my camera handy because not only did I take a picture of him speaking but I got a picture with him. Both Romney and LaPierre seemed really nice and it was pretty cool that they took time out of their schedules to come talk to the volunteers.

We finally finished bag stuffing and all of us were exhausted. Around 7pm I found my roommate, who got stuck on pre-registration and asked what we wanted to do for dinner. We decided to go into the capitol itself, near the White House, out to dinner (I forgot the name of the restaurant but it was good!). After dinner, we did a little site seeing which is always an amazing thing to do. Yes, I did take a picture of my future house.

Day 3 at the CPAC: the real first day.
The mayhem started. As volunteers, we were supposed to be up and in the volunteer lounge by 7:30 so we can eat breakfast and start working by 8ish. I knew that there were some pretty awesome guest speakers today and I really wanted to hear some of the speeches. Some notable people that were scheduled to speak were: Marco Rubio, Senator. Jim DeMint, Liz Cheney, Mit Romney, and Minority Leader John Boehner. I really wanted to meet Boehner because I think he is one of the Republicans that we can count on in the near future but I do not believe he will run for President. As a volunteer, we were told that if we would like to meet anyone that is speaking we would be able to but we just had to let them know.

Well, I was scheduled to work the main entrance to the ballroom. Well just before we started to let people in, I was asked if I would go stand at the entrance to the back of the stage so people would not try to get behind stage. I was a little bummed because I thought that I wouldn’t be able to hear anyone speak. Well I was standing back there making sure that media personnel did not get back there. I had to fend off several people and attempt to be a tough guy. I believe I was successful. Just before noon I overheard one of the directors of CPAC talking on the phone saying this: “Did you hear who is making a surprise visit? Well, keep this a secret; Dick Cheney is coming to speak while after his daughter.” I couldn’t believe it. Liz Cheney was scheduled to speak at 12:30 and as soon as she took the stage I was told to follow someone to the backstage area because as the person put it: “I want him to be able to see this.” Someone covered for me and I followed them to the backstage area. Over in the corner, I see Dick Cheney sitting and waiting patiently to surprise everyone in the crowd. I got a few pictures of him while he was waiting to speak and when he finally took the stage, I was told that I would get to meet him after! Well when he finished speaking we got positioned to get a hand shake and a quick picture. The people from the CPAC have a picture of me shaking his hand! I thought that was one of the coolest things I have ever done.

I resume my position while being totally excited. Well next up to speak was Mit Romney and I was told he was going to enter through the way that I was guarding. So I got ready to fend off a huge crowd that followed him to the entrance. At first I didn’t realize that he also had a special guest with him. Romney brought Senator Scott Brown along with him and he walked right pass me and I didn’t recognize him at first! Well I finally realized it was him and I was determined to at least go shake his hand. So I got someone to cover for me real quick again and I went to the backstage area looking like I belonged there. Well I saw Scott Brown standing there and I took a quick picture of him. He saw me do that and said: “Want a picture with me?” I went over there and handed my camera to someone who took the picture. Let me say this, Scott Brown is a freaking rock star! He loves it and he is probably one of the nicest guys out there! My day could not have gotten any better.

Like I said earlier, I really wanted to meet John Boehner. He was scheduled to speak at 3:45. Just after he took the stage, someone came and got me and said “Let’s go, you wanted to meet Boehner, right?” So I followed him and we (there was a group of us) sat in the waiting room behind stage for him to finish. He came right into the room and we all lined up and he shook each and every one of our hands and thanked us for all of our hard work. So I also have a picture with him too. This was one of the best days ever!

Day 4 at the CPAC: officially day 2.
Friday I was scheduled to work the book signing down in exhibit hall. This is usually a pretty good job because you get too meet some important people. However, Friday’s book signers were not that important except Ann Coulter. However, there was also a speaker that day that I wanted to meet: Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. So when he took the stage someone came down and got me and I got to meet Pawlenty too! Again, he is one of the nicest guys too. Well I went back to book signing and had to wait until 4 when Ann Coulter was scheduled. It got crazy busy real fast and as she was signing books I was assigned to keep people moving from the signing area. I was literally 3 feet from Ann. Ann finished signing everyone’s books and I asked if I could get a quick picture with her. She was more than happy to do that too! Unfortunately, she isn’t as attractive in person as she looks in pictures.

After book signing I was told that I can get dinner up in the volunteer lounge. When I was in there, there was on 2 other people in there with me. All of a sudden, two body guards come in along with Ann Coulter and the door shuts. Ann was on a personal phone interview and they decided to come into that room. So we basically got a personal radio show and when she was done we asked if we could get a picture with her. She was once again, more than happy to do that even though her body guards wanted to get her out of there and moving on to the next event. So we got a quick picture. What a great day!




Day 5 at the CPAC: last day.
There were some pretty big speakers scheduled for the last day. Here is some: John Bolton, Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, Bob McDonnell, and Glenn Beck as the keynote speaker. As the day was going on, I was at the exit of the main ballroom so I got to listen to the speeches. During one panel session, I heard someone announce that Amity Shlaes is about to speak. Well Amity Shlaes wrote The Forgotten Man which I had to read last semester for my independent study. I was pumped. I really wish I had my book with me because I would have loved if she signed it but I asked if I could go backstage to meet her and possibly get a quick picture with her. They let me go because she isn’t a big speaker. So I went back and got a quick picture with her and got to talk to her for a minute. While I was back there, I met John Bolton and shook his hand. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a picture with him but I did get a picture of him. He seemed like a nice guy too.

Obviously, Glenn Beck was the last speaker of the night and of the event. Well, I made a move to get into a good spot to hear his speech and get as close to the stage as I could, which is pretty easy to do when you are a volunteer. His speech gets going and he is all fired up, I personally liked his speech better than when I watch him on tv. 35 minutes into the speech, one of the volunteer organizers finds all of us and tells us that we have the chance to meet Glenn Beck but we could choose to stay and listen to the rest of the speech. Of course all of us wanted to meet him. So we go to the back where he was going to be taken to avoid the media and a huge crowd. All of us lined up the way that was convenient for a group picture. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to use all of our cameras so they used theirs and the picture will be sent to us very soon. However, I did get to shake his hand and he just seemed like a real nice guy and I truly believe now that he believes every word that he says.

Well that was my CPAC experience. I got to meet some pretty famous people and I made a lot of new friends. I do want to say this though; the conservative movement is NOT dead. In fact, it is the complete opposite, the conservative movement is ALIVE and well and we are fired up! I wish I had more space to talk about everything that I saw and got and did while I was there. I also wish I had time to talk more about the speeches some people gave but I can’t wait to re-listen to the speeches online. This was one of the most exciting experiences of my life and I really cannot wait until next year’s CPAC! 2010 elections are going to be fantastic!!!

If you want to know what I thought of any of the speeches or if you want to know anything specifically, let me know.