IndeCon

Americans For Prosperity Hits Grand Slam at First Annual Summit

I attended the Americans For Prosperity Summit last week. It was their first annual conference, and it was a bar-none grand slam for grass-roots activists.  They had all the top-tier conservate candidates, and then some:

Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Guiliani, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Ron Paul, Sam Brownback - they all spoke to the group of attendees (about 1,600, give or take).  Plus, there was 20/20 anchor John Stossel, who gave quite the Libertarian-slanted speech which turned the bluehairs in the room a bit pale. I loved it. 

The "other" speakers were phenomenal as well, giving hope for the average citizen that he or she does still COUNT in American politics today. I did a little write-up below on AFP, if you're interested in learning more. Plus, here's their website.

AFP? Good people.

I must say one thing - thank you, Ron Paul, for waking up the young people in this country.  Your supporters were there in force, and while I won't vote your way due to some extreme differences I have with you, I'm very happy indeed to know that at least one Republican is bringing in the under-forty crowd, under the "big tent" party. 

No matter who you vote for, I hope you agree that we need to send honorable, conservative thinkers to the White House.  I won't drone on here, but suffice it to say, I'm fed up with the current "regime," and disappointed in both the President and Vice President's lack of core American values they've exhibited (if not flaunted) in recent years, and their we-versus-they approach toward governance. OK, enough of that.

Many of the speakers at the Summit do show great promise. A couple do not. 

The two BIG WINNERS from the AFP Summit, in my humble opinion:

1. Mike Huckabee: What a breath of fresh air. My idealistic and optimistic side wants this guy in the Oval Office. My cynical side wonders whether he can stand the heat in the kitchen.  I loved old Governor Jerry Brown for wanting a flat tax and to get rid of the IRS; I thought the world of Ross Perot for having the courage to say "get rid of them;" I love Mike Huckabee today for the same reason.  They lost.  But Mike, thank you for keeping this message alive. 

Mike also brings a sense of humor to the podium which we totally underestimate in our daily lives.  Humor unites us. He's got that Ronald Reagan glimmer in his eye, and that, my friends, is far more powerful than a Nixonian scowl from the shadows.

It has been clear from Huckabee's previous forums and this one too, Mike gets how people think. He understands how to attract and retain businesses. He knows how to respect his counterparts yet get good work done - making progress.

He sincerely believes in the Peoples' Constitutional rights, and I do NOT see Mike Huckabee - whether President or Vice President - holing up in his office and approving such blatantly UN-AMERICAN and frankly, imperialistic measures as our current President, the Vice President (who I once admired more than Reagan), and the divide-and-destroy partizen himself, Carl Rove. 

2. Rudy Guiliani:  Inspired thinker and true hero. Probably the best person to articulate common-sense economic policy and strong foreign policy. His debate skills are hands-down the best to 1) Remind an optimistic Obama support contingent that the well-meaning Senator needs a few more years under his belt in the "real world" to understand the landscape; and 2) Go head-to-head with Hillary Clinton and win.  

I don't know yet whether Mike Huckabee could stand Hillary's heat, but I believe Rudy could not only stand it, but create some of his own.

On the social-side, his proven workfare approach is commedable. In New York, he said, they changed the name of the "Welfare Office" to the "Job Services Office."  Bingo.  He's tough-tough-tough on crime (as a former prosecutor), and he's proven his ability to run a multi-billion dollar budget. 

However, he tried (unsuccessfully) to thread the needle on abortion. Hopefully he has learned that he must be more up-front with his convictions.  I think Ron Paul and Senator Obama both have laid some groundwork on that side, to allow other would-be contenders to be FAR more specific, rather than the meandering generalities of the sitting President.  I also shake my head when I think of how he has dealt with his own rickety family life. The marriage(s), the decision-making, how he manages his business and personal life now seems a mess.

However, I understand the life of a great politician requires extreme sacrifice. I also hold out hope that his well-articulated stance on abortion, which supports the Constitution, will ultimately lead to his appointing a conservative thinker to the Supreme Court - one who knows better than to allow the killing of 4,000 children a day in the best country on Earth.  We can set an example for the rest of the world on this ghastly factory-style death mill, and rid the American landscape of the FOR-PROFIT Planned Parenthood (the ultimate oxymoron) and the Holocost of unimaginable proportions that they have propogated in accordance with Roe V. Wade.

Ah, but I digress (again)...

The Two "Biggest Losers?" -

1. Fred Thompson.   Fred, I love ya brother, but 1) You need to spend time with a doctor. I'm worried about Fred's health. I don't think he has the stamina, but perhaps we caught him on a bad day;  and 2)  His George Bushian generalities are ineffective, when it comes to painting a clearer, more optimistic vision for the future, especially when stacked up against the likes of Mitt Romney (who was dead-on-message), Rudy Guiliani, Huckabee and Brownback.  Fred Thompson was clearly either confused, tired, uninformed, or unpracticed.  He rambled, in front of 1,600 would-be grass-roots supporters!  Yikes! 

I'll chalk it up to being late to the race for now, but Fred - see a doctor and start sleeping more, will you, my friend? You've got a LONG road to hoe, and folks are counting on you to step it up.

2. John McCain.  Senator's schedule did not allow him to speak on Friday, in the Mayflower Hotel's incredible Grand Ballroom, but rather, he spoke the night before in the Senate Office Building's spartan and uninspiring "Meeting Room 9A." 

Hey, image is NOT everything, but let's face it, spotlights, color, the rich history of the Mayflower Hotel, its 30-foot ceilings and drippingly elegant promenade, media coverage by CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN and FOX, up-tempo music, a million dollar sound multimedia system backed up by a 10-person technical crew. No, image is not everything, but delivering a message in that environment rather beats out a hastily-arranged Skyline display in a flourescently lit Senate lunchroom, which reminded us we all live in a "Dilbert" world.

A little about Americans For Prosperity:

Simply put, AFP's mission is to INCREASE citizen involvement from a grass-roots level, to give legislators at a local, state and national level a swift kick in the pants - to return to SOUND economic policy which is at the very core of American principles - empowering the individual and reducing the government's role in our everyday lives. 

The first task at hand? REDUCE SPENDING!
The EASY target? Those pesky GOVERNMENT EARMARKS!

Tim Phillips, Americans For Prosperity's President, recently toured the country on what is called the "Ending Earmarks Tour," to expose government officials' total disregard for the taxpayer. He uncovered more than a hundred blog entries can cover, but the one you may know about was the famous "Bridge to Nowhere" earmark, in Alaska.  Credit Tim Phillips with bringing national attention to this issue.  20/20 ran the national expose on this, and cited Tim's dogged determination on this single issue as a legitimate reason for picking up the story. 

The $233 million dollar bridge to nowhere, which was a bridge to span a barely inhabited island in Alaska  (fifty residents - that's 5-0), was defeated in Congress just two weeks ago. A quarter-billion dollar project - GONE! 

Well, last week's first annual American Dream Summit by AFP was further proof that these folks are for real, and they intend to get YOU and ME activated in everyday politics to make a diffeference in our own future.

I like to say prosperity requires three elements of each and every one of us:

1. The ability and will to EARN it;
2. The intelligence to INVEST it wisely; and
3. The vigilance to ensure our govenment doesn't SQUANDER it.

Kudos, Tim Phillips; and kudos to Americans for Prosperity for getting tomorrow's conservative leadership thinking with their HEADS again, and injecting supply-side thinking into their rhetoric on the campaign trail. There's no guarantee that if elected they will walk the talk, but after all, that's OUR job as citizens to make sure our elected officials know we're here to help them speak softly (and intelligently), but we're also here with a big frippin' stick to ensure they follow through.

Live long and prosper,

John