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CPAC Candidate Speeches

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Professor, you’ve GOT to post a copy of Breitbart’s CPAC speech. It was so funny and so delightfully wicked.

Off topic:

Love the Jethro Tull video. I was a big Tull fan as a kid. Tull was the second concert (Lou Reed, the first) I saw.

Worst seats … directly behind the stage (at the circular Fabulous Forum, where the Lakers used to play) … but we were able to catch occasional glimpses of Ian Anderson’s flute and sometimes a sneaker (when he’d balance on one foot while playing the flute).

StrangernFiction | February 10, 2012 at 7:49 pm

Sorry, I can’t watch Mutt.

Newt GETS it on Islamism.

He GETS it on market economics (though he has to back in somewhat with tax policy).

He GETS it WRT balancing the budget WITHIN OUR MEANS.

That puts him head and shoulders above the presumptive.

Santorum can say what he will. I find his commitment to personal and economic liberty very suspect.

DINORightMarie | February 10, 2012 at 8:07 pm

Okay, I am watching as much as I can of these, but off the top I have a few questions:

Why was the lead-in to Mitt and Santorum included, but not to Newt? Was there NO applause when Newt was introduced? It gives the impression that he is not wanted at CPAC. I haven’t finished Newt’s speech yet, but there seems to be a dearth of enthusiasm……

(And – does anyone else hear a mute dvoice track running during/behind Newt’s video? Sounds like a broadcaster/journalist talking during the speech, critiquing or something. Very distracting.)

Why make your family, Sen. Santorum, stand for the entire 30 minute speech – and insult the crowd by saying, “You’re eating into my time” in such a whiny, churlish way that it was NOT funny? A turn-off for me from the beginning. Then Santorum droned on, stumbled with his speaking often, sermonizing and preachy. The Conservative message he shared is true – and essential to get the word out – but his speech was flat, IMHO. Not ready, yet.

Does anyone believe Romney is Conservative? Did he convince anyone after that speech that he is? Or that he is ready to – or capable of – taking on Obama? I could only stand so much of this, BTW, before getting nauseated by the canned, empty, Romney-sound-bite rhetoric.

Suggestion: post a poll as to whose speech was best.

Thanks for posting the links in the order that you did. Newt had me cheering, Rick was Rick, Mitt was so boring I managed to take that 15 minute nap that I’ve needed all day.

I listened to all three and must say Newt has a comprehensible message on target … not so much the other two ???

Newt, the man with the plan that makes sense and makes the contrast between visions of government.

I appreciate the wisdom of setting his plan in context of his vision at a venue that gets news coverage. This gives him the needed capital to force the other candidates and the moderators to keep the Arizona debate focused on a conservative plan rather than the rhetoric of running out the clock and op research.

I had time for the Newt speech. Loved it. Newt has concrete plans for making the Federal Government smaller. If the Establishment Republicans thought they disliked Newt before, they are going to hate him now. Newt wants to cut government and grow America. If I wasn’t pro-Newt before, I becoming more so.

Say, that link to Newt Judges Thee, is that supposed to make fun of Newt? I loved it too. Got to the picture where the caption was “The question you’ve just asked me is so brick to the head idiotic that I suggest you deserve a refund from every teacher you’ve ever had.” I’m a teacher. I wish sometimes I could say that to some of my students, except it is a little harsh.

Time for dinner. I can’t waste my life listening to these speeches.

StrangernFiction | February 10, 2012 at 8:32 pm

“I was a severely conservative Republican governor.” — Mutt

http://www.therightscoop.com/romney-i-was-a-severely-conservative-republican-governor/

He reminds me more and more of Obama every day. He will tell you ANYTHING. Absolutely pure trash this Romney.

conservativegram | February 10, 2012 at 8:45 pm

I watched all three speeches. I really loved Newt’s speech and loved the way he really focused on his specific vision to restore the country. I also noticed he appears to already be putting together a very impressive team.
Santorum’s speech was the most difficult for me to watch. Is it just me or does he never seem to really lay out a clear plan? I really want him to to be vetted more because some of the things I read have me very concerned. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/136706293.html
Romney is a decent speaker, but the only candidate that makes me feel that his words are truly sincere is Newt.

Interesting observation that suits the infantry mentality of what Newt’s daughter had pointed out about her father – he’s in it for the long haul:

“It has been reported at The Ulstermann Report and elsewhere that the our current White House occupant is quite the opposite. He often doesn’t begin his day until 10:30 am and quits at 4 pm. Both, equally disastrous.

Which leads me to speculate about the management styles of our current Presidential nominees. We have a pretty good track record from which to judge two of the candidates. Romney clearly has had a professional work ethic as a Venture Capitalist, Olympic Turn Around Specialist, and Governor. Gingrich was planning the strategy and operational reform of Congress 14 years prior to actually taking it over. In fact, he had already assigned legislation authoring to lame duck committees upon the GOP victory so that they could begin passing 9 major legislative reforms the first day. Both of these seem more than competent in this regard.

We really don’t have much to go on with Paul or Santorum. Paul has run a small medical practice and Santorum a PAC and charity, but both are relatively unknown. It is interesting that throughout the debates Rick and Ron center more of their arguments (as you would expect legislators to do) around policies or laws, while Newt and Mitt encompass more operational implementations around their proposals – not just “positions.”

This should make a priority area of focus in the upcoming weeks as the nomination nears.”

http://tinyurl.com/6qhlpyc

    Tamminator in reply to NewtCerto. | February 10, 2012 at 10:19 pm

    Very observant, NewtCerto.
    Hadn’t thought of that angle before.

    I know that Hillbuzz dissected Santorum a while back, but not many people have touched Santorum’s record that much.
    Ron Paul?
    A LOT has been posted on him, but not recently.
    The guy is nuts and his followers are even worse.

I also appreciate being able to just send to all my friends and family that have forwarded canned endorsements a real speech from the man with the vision and plan. I get so tired of the canned endorsement circuit.. Another thing I wish cpac would do is list the lobbying companies some of these participants are associated with in their agenda.

DINORightMarie | February 10, 2012 at 9:11 pm

Newt. Nailed. It.

A real, solid, bold plan, based in reality, as well as open and up front about what’s being done to him: he knows what the MSM, the establishment (i.e. Romney & Co.), the libs are doing, trying to do – or will do, should he get the nomination. He sees the fight, and is eager to take up the gauntlet!

The other two…….nah, sorry. Both milquetoast in their presentation; Romney was flat-out unpersuasive, IMHO. Newt was the most inspirational, got me excited, gave me a vision: tangible hope for America to be prosperous again. A true statesman. Conservative, solid, sure.

(An aside: how much of the public effect of these speeches is controlled by the ABC cameras? With Romney’s video, ABC pulled back the cameras and panned an overflow crowd, chanting, “Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!” ABC wouldn’t be trying to persuade the viewers that Mitt is the REAL candidate, i.e. choosing the candidate for us, would they? Nah, not the MSM…. /sarc

Remember Michele Bachmann’s TEA Party SOTU 2011 response, and that nasty MSM camera angle trickery? Yeah.)

That “Newt Judges You” website is pure awesomeness.

    wodiej in reply to Ryan. | February 10, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    “I will promise you at the first debate I will walk across the stage and punch Barack Obama in the mouth.” lol….maybe he should thump him with a copy of the Constitution.

I didn’t want to listen to Santorum or Romney but I felt I should to give a fair opinion. Santorum lost me as soon as he drug the Brady Bunch out there to stand for the entire time. I then skipped through his speech trying to find a spot where he was actually talking about specific problems we need to fix and specific ways to fix them. Nope, nothing there. After that painful experience,I decided to pass on the car salesman as plenty of others can fill in the blanks but “severely conservative?”

Now Gingrich….he knocked it out of the park. He first talked about the problem then a specific solution. Then at the end he pounded on Obama a bit.

I don’t know what is going on with voters. Are they allowing themselves to be misled by the GOP establishment? The negative ads? The lamestream media? Or are they just plain not capable of rational thought and reasoning? Some of these people act like this primary is American Idol or some other reality show. I mean really, think about it. The audience votes, people get eliminated, then they vote some more and they keep doing that until there is a winner. Supporting Gingrich should have been a no brainer. Maybe the country just has too many no brainers.

DinoMarie, glad you got the chance to listen to the whole Newt speech, it was worth it. Got the same noises in background (was little distracting to say the least), but luckily his content outweighed the annoyance. Wondered same thing on the openings. Why is it always ABC that either directly attacks Newt or lets something out of the bag, just when Romney needs it? Thinking Bain may have few connections there. Other stations do it also but not when Romney needs it most. Always ABC. Otherwise, could only listen to Romney talk about himself for about 11 min. Am I mistaken, or wasn’t Romney’s dad & mom democrats? He said his conservativism is a direct result of them. How does 2 democrats = a conservative upbringing. Find that a real stretch. Santorum although good on message, is only now becoming half way decent at speaking. Stumbled way too much and looks like he is literally trying to remember all his lines. Painful to watch. Almost more painful to make the whole family stand in a spotlight the whole time. Also, his vetting is just starting. I vetted him but can’t wait for Paul & Romney to help others with it. Also, he has yet to show us a real plan. He was in congress with Gingrich, he should have at least an idea of how & where to start from day 1 in office. Think he’s lightweight in a class of heavyweights.

Found the Breitbart CPAC video elsewhere and watched it, it’s about 16+ minutes long. Breitbart is hilarious and on the money, however, my opinion was that Breitbart was perhaps too deeply into the sauce before his speech, yet that’s just my biased personal opinion.

Still, his speech was great and he throughly destroyed both Bill Ayers and Dohrn, his terrorist wife, with his tale of how he and Carlson had dinner with those aging terrorists on Super Bowl Sunday.

Appreciated this site including all three speeches of the major GOP contenders so people could judge for themselves.

Again, I think people probably picked out strengths and weaknesses which complimented their own perspectives.

I found Santorum’s speech to be one trying to adjust himself quickly to being the latest front runner. He was the only one having his family in the background, as if to say “Hey, I want to re-introduce myself and family to you folks out there since my spectacular wins last Tuesday!”

Newt’s tried to include his silent wife, Callista, to a public who just doesn’t like her. She received a polite applause, at best, as she delivered a wooden introduction of her husband. Gingrich’s speech was described as “more subdued” in tone, but brimming full of instant-gratification kind of ideas. I simply didn’t buy all his claims to get so much done so fast. There are lots of “what ifs” to be applied to his scheme, such as what if he doesn’t get the conservative Congress he wants, in order to pass all the repeals he is putting out there as red meat to his conservative audience?

Romney is struggling to portray himself worthy of the conservative title. I think he should be himself more, relying on his lifestyle, his long term family, his successful business endeavors, his involvement with his church, etc. showing he has lived a conservative life, rather than simply espousing one like Gingrich seems to do. I liked his speech. It didn’t have the fireworks, like the conservative base seems to relish. But, it had substance and realistic goals attached to it, ones that I think he would be able to accomplish should he become POTUS.

Newt is correct! This is a time for choosing! Newt is saying that he will return our government back to what it should be and I agree with him. Whether Newt is the GOP nominee or whether it’s someone else, Newt’s correct about that. Romney will be another go along to get along guy. Santorum, not sure whether he buys into Newt’s argument but he should.

We cannot afford to have another McCain type campaign, or doing just enough to say he’d run but not enough to win and then to govern as an American.

I also believe this is a time for choosing and right now I choose Newt because I want my new grandson to be an American, living under our Constitution and growing up to have a future that he chooses and to be a contributing member of a free society.

Obama’s way, the Democrat party way, is to become a collective, a hive of worker humans, like little bees, not men, or women.

God bless us because without our America, the world will enter darkness and enslavement; look at Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Burma, China, North Korea; those will be what the world’s future would look like without our America! We have been Reagan’s City on a Shining Hilltop and can remain so if Newt becomes president.

Well it was good input up to the obviously unbiased tsr observations. Nice try.

Wow, people reacting negatively to Rick having his family up there. Oh the horror. Or is that just jealousy from Newt’s supporters because Newt can’t do the same?

Have any of y’all ever considered the possibility that, perhaps Santorum’s family wanted to be up there? You know, because they love and support their husband/dad? I know if my dad was doing something like that, he wouldn’t have to ask me to do it, I’d be asking him.

    wodiej in reply to Astroman. | February 11, 2012 at 7:13 am

    Jealous of what exactly? Gingrich has kids and grandkids. Santorum seems to be playing this Mr. Holy meme to score votes. No one else had their whole family up there. And who typically does that for a speech like this? No one. It’s not like he won anything.

      Astroman in reply to wodiej. | February 11, 2012 at 11:26 am

      Ah, denigrating a social conservative with a supportive and intact family as “Mr. Holy.” Obama would approve.

I keep noticing that Newt is the only one who gives speeches that tell me exactly what he is going to do to turn things around.

Isn’t that what we’ve been asking our politicians to do?

Newt won the battle of CPAC speeches by a long mile. I’ve heard hundreds of speeches over the years and this was one of the best I’ve ever heard and Romney’s was one of the worst.

    Astroman in reply to Say_What. | February 11, 2012 at 11:30 am

    As a conservative, I’m looking at people’s records. People’s speeches, not so much. I’ll take someone’s record over someone’s speech any day of the week.

    At this point in the primary, how many more speeches and debates do we need?!

      Say_What in reply to Astroman. | February 11, 2012 at 12:32 pm

      Hi Astroman. See you are out and about for your daily Newt bashing. Reread my first paragraph – Newt is telling us exactly what intends to do if elected. It’s the content of the speech. And if you don’t like speeches and debates, you don’t have to listen to them.