Regardless of the ham-handedness that caused Bearing Drift to shutdown its live-blog early into Sarah Palin’s speech – causing us to miss most of it – by all other counts, FreedomFest 2010 was a success – especially for the new local conservative radio station: Freedom 1650AM.
Steve Batton, host of the station’s morning show from 5:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. has to be pleased about the thousands of conservatives that came to Constant Convocation Center on the campus of Old Dominion University to hear from such conservative stalwarts as George Allen, Jay Sekulow, Bishop E.W. Jackson and Oliver North – each bringing their own personal expertise to the discussion.
Allen spoke of freedom regarding the role and responsibility of government. He said that the first responsibility of the federal government is a strong national defense. But security is also a state issue, he said.
“Our law enforcement and first responders are on call 24 hours a day – every minute,” he said. “They are protecting us and preserving our freedoms and blessings of liberty here at home.”
He called upon the audience to thank law enforcement, fire fighters, first responders, and volunteers, but he also said thanks and support can be given by effectively meting out justice.
“For our law enforcement officers, when they catch a violent criminal, we’re not going to listen to a bunch of pap and pychobabble about, ‘Oh, the poor criminal had traumatic potty training and his elementary school teacher was tough on him’. No! There is an objective difference between right and wrong.”
Allen also said that America was at its best when it is a land of opportunity where anyone, regardless of their background, can have the equal opportunity to compete and succeed.
“[A person can succeed in our country] based on their own hard work, diligence, and innovative leadership – a meritocracy – not guaranteeing equal results, but equal opportunity,” he said. “Our free enterprise system is not for the government to manipulate who wins and loses – we the people decide who has the best product and the best service.”
Sekulow spoke of preserving freedom from judicial activism.
“A judge in Wisconsin declares that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional – a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment -which is pretty interesting considering that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment was written by James Madison….Madison didn’t have one day of prayer, he did it four times!”
Jackson spoke of freedom and the greatness of America. In speaking about those who denigrate and diminish American exceptionalism, Jackson said, “It took our ancestors weeks and months to come here on ships, but there are planes that will take you out of here tomorrow!”
He also spoke directly to the black community regarding the nature of the conservative movement:
“This is the group that stands up and fights for 480,000 black babies that are killed in the womb each year industry of abortion. This is the group that stands up for the family as God designed it – a union between one man and one woman. This is the group that is striving for your freedom to be anything you want to be; to go as high as your ability and your hard work will take you,” Jackson stated. “It is time we stopped emphasizing black and white and started lifting up the red, white, and blue!”
Oliver North spoke of the current conflicts America is engaged in globally – and specifically about the men and women who serve to carry out these missions:
“A hero is someone who puts themselves at risk for the benefit of others,” said North. “Ours is still the only nation on earth, and has been for more than two centuries, that repeatedly sends its sons and daughters into harm’s way – not for gold, or oil, or colonial conquest, but to offer others the hope of freedom offered to us.”
And, Lee Greenwood entertained the crowd from the outset with some his most inspirational songs, including, of course, “God Bless the U.S.A.”
There was some question whether Scott Rigell would or would not appear on stage after Ben Loyola (Loyola gave a rousing speech of his own to introduce Terri Rigell).
According to folks from the campaign who I spoke with yesterday, due to the potential of there being Federal Election Commission entanglements (also confirmed by Politico), Rigell did not appear, but his wife Teri spoke instead.
Teri did a great job in her husband’s absence, but it had to have been tough for the candidate to allow the opportunity to speak to thousands to pass him by.
Despite FreedomFest 2010 being sponsored by Freedom Ford, Rigell’s dealership, and his campaign having a very noticeable presence at the arena, many in the audience probably were not aware of the FEC issues keeping Rigell from the stage, and were left to wonder why their 2010 Congressional standard-bearer sat on the sidelines.
However, if not for Rigell’s financial backing to the event, perhaps the event may have not even gone forward in the first place?
Kudos to Rigell for doing the right thing.
Of course, given Palin’s plummeting star, he may have not hurt himself much at all.
Regarding the former Alaska governor, we would have liked to have provided you a quote or two from what she said – as I am sure it hit on similar themes as all the other speakers. But, as mentioned in a previous post, we were asked to leave five minutes into her speech.
However, while sympathetic bloggers were given the boot, you can read more about the speech from MSM in the Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press.
