Some observations from CPAC

Despite Paul not being there and coming in 4th in the straw poll, there were many positive things for liberty going on at CPAC 2012.

A few observations:

- Grover Norquist followed a decent forum on Occupy vs. Tea Party that was a little too partisan for my tastes. Norquist said the reason the Republicans didn't accept raising taxes in 2011 is because of the influence of "The Tea Party and Ron Paul people." In fact, he mentioned Paul three times, and each of them was in positive connection with the Tea Party, which the crowd overwhelmingly supported when prompted. From my view, Norquist was essentially indirectly crediting Paul with the whole fiscal conservative movement in the past couple years, although he did give respect to Boehner and McConnell.

- Speaking of that Occupy vs. Tea Party forum, one of the panelists strongly emphasized that electing Republicans is not good enough, you need to elect conservatives. It was healthy and these folks stuck to the fiscal issues.

- I don't know if they mentioned this in the news, but the two top write-ins for VP in the straw poll were Allen West and Rand Paul. Personally I wrote in Jim DeMint because I think a Paul/Paul ticket would be silly. The top VP pick that was actually listed was Marco Rubio, by far - wasn't even close. That said, it wasn't scientific, he was the first name on the list.

- When Mitt Romney was announced as the winner for the straw poll, there was a good-sized cheer immediately followed by noticeable booing. I don't think Fox News will play the clip.

- There were lots of liberty-oriented events mixed in with the social conservative and neocon garbage one might expect. There were events on the gold standard (featuring Paul's Fed pick Jim Grant), the Fed (Independent Institute), a great foreign policy debate (featuring Bruce Fein), a nullification panel by 10th Amendment Center, not to mention the movie screening, and appearances by people from Cato and Reason.

- Not to mention Jim DeMint practically called for electing Ron Paul without actually saying it. Rick Perry's speech was almost 100% Ron Paul talking points, plus a zinger about "halftime in America" - he's worried about starting Obama at quarterback in the second half.

- Also S.E. Cupp is really hot. That is all.

- Oh I forgot when Donald Trump was mentioned during the straw poll results, everyone booed. Everyone.