Vanity Fair: The Conservative Political Action Conference: A Fantasy Itinerary

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Politics
The Conservative Political Action Conference: A Fantasy Itinerary
by Juli Weiner February 18, 2010, 6:05 PM

Today’s day one of the 2010 iteration of CPAC, Washington D.C.'s annual Conservative Political Action Conference, brought to you by the American Conservative Union. The list of promised speakers is a veritable “Who's Who?” of power players who might have featured prominently in a charticle from a 1996 issue of George magazine: Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, John Ashcroft, and Rick Santorum will all be there, as will Fox News all-stars Glenn Beck and Tucker Carlson. The schedule—they’re calling it, pejoratively?, an “agenda”—reflects an effort to engage with nascent forms of online grassroots movements while maintaing a commitment to the traditional CPAC battle call: insisting values need saving from an assortment of things that endanger them.

A close reading:

• Number of times the word “Saving” appears on Agenda: 7
• Number of times the word “Freedom” appears on Agenda: 10

• Number of times the word “Saving” immediately precedes the word “Freedom”: 7

• Number of different groups/organizations from which Freedom needs Saving: 5 (cf. “the tax collectors”; “they”; “a big government agenda”; “the enemies of our values”)

• Number of times the word “Liberty” appears on Agenda: 10

•Number of times the word “Patriot” appears on Agenda: 7

• Number of events receiving VF Daily honorable mentions for using most of if not all of the preceding terms: 1 (cf. “Saving Freedom One Patriot at a Time”)

• Number of events explicitly designated as relating to social media: 4 (cf. “Blogging, Tweeting and Other Funny Words That Grow the Movement”; “Saving Freedom Through Technology”: “Growth of the Online Movement”; “Internet Activist Workshop”)

• Number of card deck signings from 2004 World Series of Poker World Champion Greg “Fossilman” Raymer: 1

That last thing sounds suspiciously devoid of any interest in saving a thing from some other thing! Save CPAC from Greg “Fossilman” Raymer!


http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/02/the-conservative-political-action-conference-a-fantasy-itinerary.html