Reporting to you from the Blogger’s Lounge, sponsored by FreedomWorks, I’m here at CPAC reporting for our great readers!
[Update #4] Ron Paul supporter shows his ignorance, unannounced surprise guest former Vice President Dick Cheney takes the stage to present a ‘Defender of the Constitution’ award to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. After a rousing standing ovation quieted down, Ron Paul supporter jumps to his feet heckling and deriding the former Vice President in a despicable display. Needless to say he was not so quietly removed from the conference.
[Update #3] Wow. Donald Trump almost started a riot this afternoon. When remarking he didn’t see a candidate that excited him, the room, filled to capacity for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul who was following trump, the room began chanting ‘Ron Paul! Ron Paul!’ Trump heard the cheers, and said hey, ‘I like the guy but Ron Paul cannot get elected’ Near riot.
Rand Paul takes the stage to a thirty second standing ovation and a packed house. The room was so filled the fire marshals closed the doors and prevented anyone else from coming into the room. Great reception, obviously, for Senator Paul.
[Update #2] Filled out my straw poll form (picture of all the candidates below), if nothing else then to give me an excuse to stop everyone from passing me campaign lit. Voted for Chris Christie #1, Haley Barbour #2 in case anyone cares. I did see at least one Bob McDonnell write-in vote. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took the stage, CPAC main floor is filling up. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich just took the stage to a long standing ovation. Floor is packed, camera phones are out and filming, some definite excitement about Newt.
[Update #1] Plenty of red meat getting tossed out as the conference gets rolling, we’ve already seen Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Pat Toomey, Congresswoman Kristi Noem.
Donald Trump (yes, him) is running a Write-In campaign, he has campaign volunteers throughout the conference passing out lit encouraging him to write in.
Ron Paul is the heavy favorite to win the straw-poll, Campaign for Liberty, his PAC, registered nearly 1200 people, an increase over last year by 25%. I saw numerous C4L volunteers and staffers steering people to the straw poll voting tables and camping out next to the tables.
Internet connection is a little faulty in the Blogger’s Lounge, so updates will likely be few and far between but I’ll try posting a few updates each day.
You can find the schedule HERE, if there’s anything specific anyone wants to know about, hear about, have me take pictures of, please respond in the comments and let me know.
I’ll be updating throughout the day as internet is available.
You can also check out twitter updates by following us at @bearingdrift or searching for #CPAC11
