You Know the Lowlights. Here Are a Few Highlights from CPAC…Seriously

There was, of course, the dumb faux populism of Tim Pawlenty and the requisite Glenn Beck chalkboard and denunciations of Woodrow Wilson. But a few interesting moments are worth noting from this year's CPAC. One involved former Reason Foundation intern and current Students for Liberty executive director Alex McCobin. Watch McCobin praise the American Conservative Union for allowing GOProud, a gay Republican group, to co-sponsor the event—and listen to the knuckle-draggers in the audience try (and fail) to shout him down.

Also heartening: When a California conservative activist named Ryan Sorba denounced homosexuality from the lectern, he was roundly booed and forced to slink off the stage (muttering "bring it" and warning a heckler that he had "just made an enemy of me, buddy"). GOProud member Alex Knepper confronted Sorba after his speech and was told that his homosexuality was an immoral choice, not a genetic predisposition. When Knepper attempted to shake Sorba's hand, the Golden State's foremost amateur geneticist replied: "Well, I don't really want to shake your hand, you're intrinsically evil." So wait, is he intrinsically evil or, with a bit of counseling, can Knepper be "fixed"?

And on the same day The Washington Post published his terrific takedown of Sarah Palin, columnist George Will, who recently advised the United States to leave Afghanistan, addressed the CPAC crowd and delivered one of the weekend's most libertarian invocations. It is a spectacular speech, worth twenty minutes of undivided attention.