The Republican candidates -- and Ann Coulter -- try out their acts
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Giuliani flops and Romney shines as the GOP presidential contenders promise the right-wing faithful everything, including a cure for cancer.
By Michael Scherer
at Salon
March 3, 2007 | WASHINGTON -- "The Ann Coulter presidential primary ended on Friday, before an oversold crowd of Republican college kids and conservative activists in a basement hotel conference room. She had just finished doing her incendiary stand-up act, joking that Al Gore was fat ("Did Al Gore actually swallow Michael Moore?"), that Bill Clinton was the first black president ("half white, half trash") and that John Edwards was a "faggot."
Then a question came from the audience. What did she think of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor now running for president? "I think he is probably our best candidate," she said, with a sudden lack of sarcasm, prompting a round of applause from the room. "I think we have to be serious about this."
No one at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference was taking the upcoming presidential election lightly. For the first time since 1996, the Republican Party finds itself with no single front-runner and no clear conservative standard-bearer. "Ronald Reagan is not with us," explained David Keene, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, sponsor of the event, which drew every GOP presidential contender with the notable exception of John McCain. "None of them are perfect." Meanwhile, the national mood has turned on the Republican Party. A recent New York Times tracking poll shows that the party has a favorability rating of just 38 percent, compared to 48 percent for Democrats, the lowest score in the poll since 1998. "This conference is called CPAC," joked Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor who is running for president. "Maybe this weekend it might be named the 'Conservative Presidential Anxiety Contest.' " He paused a beat and then added, "Dude, where's my candidate?"
...........SNIP"
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/03/cpac/index.html