“If we are going to have a nuclear holocaust, I’m going to the buffet first” – National Review 2008 Post Election Cruise – part 1
Sun, Booze, and Conservatives – what more can you ask for?
This diary is the first in a series of multimedia diaries that I
will be posting over the next few days. I’m hoping that I can get
my footage edited and up on YouTube before I need to head to Los
Angeles on Monday. So bear with me as I put all of this together.
I’m going to start with this overview of the cruise, then in later
segments cover in depth the discussions that occurred on specific
topics, such as the bailout, Hollywood, and George W. Bush’s
legacy.
The cruise began last Saturday in Fort Lauderdale Florida. Over
700 of us boarded Holland America’s new ship, the Eurodam, for a
cruise of the Caribbean. Our ports of call included Grand Turk, San
Juan, St. Thomas, and finally their private island, Half Moon Cay.
During the cruise, we had dinner with the speakers on a rotating
basis, nightly receptions (including 2 cigar and cognac parties)
and daily panel discussions with the speakers. The big draws were
Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, but we also had; Anne Bayefsky, Ken
Blackwell, Mona Charen, Shannen Coffin, David Freddoso, Roman Genn,
Jim Geraghty, Jonah Goldberg, Victor Davis Hanson, Bernard Lewis,
Scott Johnson, Rob Long, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Andrew McCarthy, Bill
McGurn, John Miller, Deroy Murdock, Jay Nordlinger, Kate O’Beirne,
Darcy Olsen, John O’Sullivan, Ramesh Ponnuru, Father Robert Sirico,
Stephen Spruiell, Mark Steyn, Pat Toomey, Ed Whelan, Bing West, and
Byron York.
With this lineup, there was no shortage of opportunities to
discuss politics and issues with an impressive array of people who
we listen to and read almost daily. I’ve put together this quick
video to give a flavor of cruise:
As you can see, it was a really fabulous event. In all honesty,
I was worried that it would be a shipload of depressed
conservatives whining about Obama. But to my surprise, everyone
quickly became quite upbeat and positive about the future. Also to
my surprise, there was a remarkable unanimity among the speakers
and guests regarding the future of conservatism and the Republican
Party. Even when there were sharp differences in opinions, such as
between Pat Toomey and Mitt Romney on the bailout, there was a very
high degree of commonality between the speakers and genuine
friendship. It was great to see Fred and Mitt talking and laughing
together during breaks in the program.
During the last week, I found out something I didn’t know.
Apparently, I look like Mitt Romney. During the first night’s
reception I was asked several times if I was David Romney, Mitt’s
son. I kind of brushed it off as being the light, but when Jim
Geraghty told me I ought to be his stunt double, I realized I was
in for a long week. All in all, 47 people told me how much I look
like Mitt, and the National Review folks started teasing me about
it, with Jonah Goldberg and Roman Genn telling me that they were
going to use me as a stand-in for Mitt in caricatures.
I also found out that quite a few people pay attention to
RedState. It turns out that Jim Geraghty has read several of my
diaries (so you can bet he has read other folks too). Also, when I
was talking to Jeri Thompson about Team Sarah, she immediately
brought up RedState and Operation Leper, before learning I post
here. Once she found out, she told me to thank Erick for Operation
Leper and to tell him Hi (Erick, Jeri says Hi, just wanted you to
know, don’t let it go to your head, k?). During the cruise I got to
talk extensively to several folks like Jay Nordlinger, Mark Steyn,
Pat Toomey, Jonah Goldberg, and Rob Long. My wife and I also struck
up some nice friendships with Jen, who runs the Shining-city.net
blog and her husband Zack, and also Jim Geraghty and his wife.
Some additional observations from the past week:
1) Sarah Palin is a rock star. John O’Sulivan
took advantage of his first speaking opportunity to go off topic
and tell everyone what a terrific candidate he thinks she is. He
was stunned be the thunderous ovation that he got in response, and
quite taken aback. I’m going to write a specific diary about the
discussion of Sarah, but afterward, the joke among the speakers
became “if you want applause, just say Sarah”.
2) Much of the NR conservative base is getting
old. My wife and I were among the youngest people on the
cruise. Even though we aren’t all that young (we look much younger
than we are), the handful of younger cruisers gravitated toward us
as did some of the younger National Review folks. National Review
needs to really think about how to find a way to get younger
conservatives to attend.
3) Racism and homophobia is alive and well in the
GOP. I’m really saddened to say so, but several of our
fellow cruisers had no problems making blatant, disparaging
comments about blacks and gays, because they felt comfortable being
at a dinner table with white conservatives. Fortunately, these were
very much older guests, so I’m hopeful that I was seeing a vestige
of the past. There also seems to be a vocal subset of the SoCon
cruisers that felt it was their duty to chastise the younger women
that they should be quitting their jobs to raise and home school
their children.
4) My instincts about the lessons of the election are
pretty good. The
diary I wrote immediately after the election stands up very
well to the thinking of the conservative speakers. Every point that
I made in this diary was raised by someone on a panel, and very few
other ideas or thoughts were discussed. An exception was the
discussion of the work that Darcy Olsen and the Goldwater Institute
is doing in Arizona. There is an untapped opportunity on the state
level that we should be taking advantage of. I’ll be specifically
writing a diary entry on this topic.
5) The positive attitudes of the NR people do not come
across well in writing. I found that in person, the NR
folks are very upbeat and generally very much in sync with
everything we talk about here. The gloom and loss of focus on
conservatism that we tend to see when we read the Corner does not
come out when you talk to them face to face.
6) Conservatism has a remarkable strong and consistent
message. The spirit of Reagan is alive and well, and is
not watered down among the 700+ I spent a week with. Even areas of
disagreement had very positive results, where the direction forward
was universally based on common beliefs in conservative base
principles.
Let me give a quick note about the title of this series. I
overheard someone say this in the elevator heading up to the
midnight buffet. This was in response to a comment Mark Steyn made
about Anne Bayefsky giving an impassioned speech about the Iranian
nuclear program, while dressed in a towel. No, I am not
kidding.
Stay tuned for more about the cruise.
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