2 DC | SU N DAY, M A RCH 1, 2009 T H E E X A M I N ER
MICHAEL REAGAN
Where's Obama's beef?
Lots of great rhetoric won't
conceal an agenda
that will damage
America.
Page 22
PAUL MIRENGOFF
Clinton reprise on
North Korea
Secretary of
State won't
admit "Dear
Leader" is a
liar.
Page 23
BRIGHTEST LIGHT
Virginia updates its drivers'
licences Page 24
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M
ore than 8,500 men
and women, the
heart and soul of
the conservative
movement, came to the nation's
capital to attend the Conserva-
tive Political Action Conference.
Their enthusiasm was palpable
but restrained. They know a
historic opportunity was lost
between 1994 and 2006 when
the Republican congressional
majority squandered its credibil-
ity because of an ugly addiction
to earmarks and the perks of
power. It's instructive, there-
fore, to recall remarks delivered
to this same conference the last
time conservatives suffered a
milestone defeat. In his "bold
colors" address in 1975, Ronald
Reagan encouraged those at
CPAC to take heart in the knowl-
edge that the liberal Democratic
victors of 1974 sounded awfully
conservative in making their
case: "Listening to them I had
the eerie feeling we were hearing
reruns of Goldwater speeches. I
even thought I heard a few of my
own."
The same is true in 2009, as
evidenced by President Barack
Obama's recent disavowal of
"bigger government" and his
insistent claim of giving 95 per-
cent of all taxpayers a tax cut.
The most radical president
in recent American history
feels compelled to conceal his
true aims with a cloud of con-
servative-sounding rhetoric.
A presidency based on such a
cynical deception is ill-fitted to
lead a nation whose electorate
clearly remains center-right in
orientation.
Obama has been in office less
than two months, but it is obvi-
ous the real Obama is the man
who compiled the most liberal
voting in the Senate, not the
presidential candidate who
in 2008 promised "a net
spending cut" for the fed-
eral government. In only a
few weeks, Obama has proposed
deficits far greater and more
damaging than anything FDR
or LBJ ever contemplated. And
with his energy, education and
health care nationalization ini-
tiatives, Obama seeks the most
suffocating bureaucratic cen-
tralization of daily American
life ever proposed. Surely
such epic over-
reaching will fail
because America
is not Europe; if
he succeeds,
there won't be
much of a rea-
son for future
CPACs.
That is also
why it is essen-
tial that
conser-
vatives frankly acknowledge that
too many of their party's leaders
in recent years indulged a simi-
larly cynical strategy of talking
one way while walking another.
To regain the electorate's trust,
conservatives must demand
straighttalkandconsistentvotes
by officials who seek their alle-
giance. And those officeholders
must take concrete actions
-- like sponsoring no
earmarks and reject-
ing federal money with
strings attached -- to
demonstrate their trust-
worthiness. "Expanding
the base" will never be
accomplished by telling
noble sounding lies.
Conservatives grapple with Obama � and their future
Ronald Reagan encouraged
those at the 1975 Conservative
Political Action
Conference
with his
"bold
colors"
address.
WORST IDEAS
Transit advocates kill 1-66
widening, again Page 25

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