This year, Daily Kos seems to be paying more attention than usual to CPAC, to the extent that the site has sent one of its principal writers, Hunter, to cover the event. His posts so far have combined politics, sociology, and a bit of anthropology, as if he were saying to himself, "Who are these strange creatures called 'conservatives'? To find out, I observed them in their natural habitat."
As usual, each headline is preceded by the blogger's name or pseudonym.
Hunter: The right is very, very scared...
The official theme of CPAC this year is America's Future: The Next Generation of Conservatives. A quick scan through the program, however, suggests a strong ancillary theme might be Our Yearly Homage to Pants-Crapping Terror...
...I have no idea how conservatives do it. The sheer number of things that require absolute panic—the fast-moving, rock-strewn river of things that are about to cause the imminent destruction of America or of the Good Conservatives within it, is uncountable, and the effort it must take is enormous...
Hunter: ...but patriotic in its own way
Two large American flags flank the main stage. Another, larger one hangs over the stage like a primary-colored sun, or a guillotine. Conservatives have absolute certainty that they own the flag; that it represents them, and they it...
Hunter: Rand rapturously received
...I'm just going to come out and say it: a good three-quarters of the [CPAC] audience, men and women alike, want to f--- Rand Paul. It's that profound a reaction. Rand Paul could have any well-dressed twenty-year-old man in this audience, and all they'd ask in return is that he sign their STAND WITH RAND placards afterwards...
Steveningen: Hunter deserves combat pay
Poor Hunter. At this very moment he is at CPAC enduring that which would send Kossacks of weaker substance screaming into the path of the nearest bus...
...I truly love Daily Kos and think only the highest of the people who run the place. But I have to say, sending Hunter into this lion's den of insanity is perhaps the cruelest thing I think I have ever witnessed in my nearly nine years here. I hope they have a plan to help him get through the trauma on his return. He is going to need lots of hot baths, long walks in People's Park, daily three-martini lunches and a big fat bonus check...
Kaili Joy Gray: Tim Scott's CPAC 'minstrel show'
...[I]f there's one time conservatives will semi-cheer for diversity, it's when they can drag their one black senator on stage to perform an incredibly awkward, and not very well received, minstrel show, saying cringe-worthy things like, "We were po. Not poor. Po"...
Kos: Only Hillary can stop Hillary
...[I]t's becoming increasingly clear that she would face an easier path to the White House than anyone since Eisenhower, and maybe even since Thomas Jefferson...
...The big question is less about whether she can win, and more about whether she wants to pull the trigger and make history.
If she does, Dems are virtually guaranteed the White House for another eight years, and with that, at least one Supreme Court seat (Scalia would be 88 by the end of her second term)...
...[S]he can decide to retire now and go out on top. But that wouldn't be the top. Getting elected president twice would be the real pinacle, and would lock in her status as the greatest woman in this nation's history. The lure of that, particularly given the (relatively) minimal effort required to get there, has to be difficult to resist...
Much of Hillary's popularity can be attributed to idiot Republicans themselves. Until Benghazi hit, GOPers spent four years building up Clinton...Of course such comments were insincere and cynical, designed to wound the president, but to casual observers, what people were hearing was how wonderful Clinton was. Republicans can't erase all that built-up praise with a single manufactured outrage. And Hillary can boast about her bipartisan praise all the way through 2016...
