As a follow up to yesterday’s post on the South Carolina straw poll, in which Congressman Duncan Hunter surprised a few pundits, the SC Hotline Press says he has emerged as a conservative answer.

Classic comment from Hunter at CPAC on the upset:

You know, I woke up to … one of the commentators saying that the only reason that Hunter beat all those guys in South Carolina is because his Marine son has been there for a week. Well, I looked down at that army of consultants, everybody who was vertical in South Carolina was hired by the other guys, and I said, "You know, that is a good match-up: One Marine versus 550 consultants." We did have the advantage!… Read More

Earlier this week, legislation was introduced by Democrat Senator Darrell Steinberg and Republican State Senator Bob Dutton that would established a state-adminstered savings account for every child born in California starting in 2008, and deposited $500 of government funds into that account. Additional funds up to a certain amount per year could be placed into the account, and the account would draw some level of interest. The funds in the accounts would only be able withdrawn after the child turns 18, and only to be spent on education, a first-time home purchase, or to roll into an Individual Retirement Account. Reaction to this proposed legislation from a broad spectrum of Republican and conservatives around the state was quick, and overwhelmingly negative. Because of the startling co-authorship of this bill by a Republican legislator, Dutton, it received a high level of interest from the media, and in the blogosphere. Yesterday, just a day after the bill was introduced, Dutton sent out a media release withdrawing his support for the legislation. There are some who want to characterize that the main reason why the bill rose ire was… Read More

I’ve not been shy about the fact that I’ve been underwhelmed about the Republican candidates for President. This being said, Romney’s speech at CPAC hit the right notes. Here are some fairly accurate excerpts…

ROMNEY ON THE LIBERAL MEDIA “I know there are a few [people] here from the mainstream media and they’re probably surprised that we are here in our record numbers. They wrote our obituary last fall, after Watergate, after the 1982 elections, and after Bill Clinton post-election. The truth is, it’s their wishful thinking – their reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, I predict that we will be around a lot longer than the newspapers will be around.”

ROMNEY ON SPENDING “We have seen an embarrassing [increase in] non-defense discretionary spending. I am proud to be the… Read More

Hot off the press… the CPAC Straw Poll results are in:

First Choice

21 Romney 17 Giulani 15 Brownback 14 Gingrich 12 McCain

Second Choice

34 Giulani 30 Romney 30 Gingrich… Read More

What about ex-wives? I couldn’t help but think of the pain given to Doolittleover the hiring of his wife when I ran across this blog entry from LAObserved.Assemblyman Richard Alarcon spent over $400,000 running for Assembly and of course he DIDN’T have an opponent. Payments went to an ex-wife, a girlfirend and a fiancee. And Mitt Romney gets picked on about Polygamy. See it here.… Read More

Today’s front page story of the New York Times about the new importance of California in presidential politics as a result of moving our primary to February includes a quote from former State Senator Jim Brulte. Brulte’s comment is pretty simple: a candidate who campaigns in California will learn more about our state and be "a better president for California." As a result of the new primary, all the major presidential candidates are spending time in California seeking to be "our President."

And here today and this weekend in Washington, D.C. at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at the venerable Omni Shoreham Hotel on Calvert Street, a bevy of the leading Republican presidential candidates are also seeking to be "our" president — the "conservative" one. With one major exception.

Every leading candidate, with the exception of John McCain (who has now passed on attending three separate conferences staged by National… Read More

ThoughMitt Romney’s speech at the Conservative Political ActionConference isstill one-halfhour from now, there is a standing-room only crowd of about 1,500 currently inside the Regency Room at the Conservative Political Action Conference waiting to hear the speech, and another 500 or more waiting in line to get in as the D.C. Fire Marshall has limited access to the room because it is so full. Guiliani similarly spoke to a standing-room only crowd earlier today. I have never seen such huge turnouts for non-meal function speeches at a CPAC, and I have attended about 20 of them over the years. This conference is HUGE!

Your author has noted other candidates for President, and their earnest supporters, such as Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (who spoke at 1:30 pm today). Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas spoke this morning and was politely received. Newt Gingrich has been very evident as well, attending the conference today and mingling in the halls with delegates even though his formal speaking role is not… Read More

Gary Kreep, the President of the Ramona-based United States Justice Foundation, has been a long-time California participant at the national Conservative Political Action Conferences in Washington, D.C. I had a chance to ask Gary about his observations on this year’s conference. Gary told me he was impressed with the high-level of turnout from college and high school age conservatives, especially those involved with some of the campaigns, such as Tancredo, Romney and Brownback. (I also saw plenty of youthful enthusiam for Rudy Guiliani during his speech!) ButGary said what he also appreciated were the dinner speeches last night by two leading Bush Administration conservatives: Vice-President Dick Cheney and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (and now American Conservative Union Board member!) John Bolton.

Gary said there was a good reason that Cheney received several standing ovations at his dinner speech last night: he told CPAC that the economy is growing, that 7.5 million new jobs have been created because of the tax cuts, that the Administration supports making the tax cuts permanent, and that it is essential to "stay the course"… Read More