Let the 2008 Election Begin

Today's starter: Over the weekend, I went to the National Review Institute's first Conservative Summit where the 2008 presidential election was topic one. Several of the candidates were there including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who in all likelihood announced his presidential candidacy on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.

I saw quite a few of my favorite bloggers there including the still anonymous Ace of Spades, Mary Katharine Ham of Townhall.com, Michelle Malkin, Rand Simberg and Rob Bluey of Human Events. Paul Mirengoff of Power Line was blogging incognito [not really] from the summit--none of the bloggers I talked to had bumped into him.

A roundup of blog coverage follows after the jump. Use this as today's open thread.

• MIA at the conference: Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. Even Jeb Bush gave a speech, as did Newt Gingrich.
• Paul Mirengoff summarizes the debate over whether or not the military "surge" in Iraq is a mistake.
• Mitt Romney's speech received somewhat of a lackluster reception from Katherine Lopez, Mirengoff, and Ace. The latter two are quick to add, though, that a speech needing improvement does not equal necessary failure.
• I thought Mike Huckabee did pretty well, however, a blogger for the American Spectator did not.
• Friday night featured a panel discussion of some of the conservative movement's top female pundits: Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, Katherine Lopez, Mona Charen, and Kate O'Beirne. Paul Mirengoff has a good summary.
• Mary Katharine Ham captured some of Snow's speech onto video. See her recap as well.