Live from the Virginia Republican Convention

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This past weekend I made the trip down to Richmond for the Virginia Republican Convention. I would like everyone to know that reports on the demise of the Republican Party have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, I have never seen more people as passionate about politics as I saw this past weekend.

Whether it was the jam-packed Richmond Coliseum on Saturday or the sold out Commonwealth Gala the night before, it seemed like the Virginia Republicans are all ready for November. Some more news for those of you who think that the Republican Party is just a buncha rich white folks€¦ you are mistaken. I witnessed firsthand the diversity of the party. Whether it was the delegates, guests or the presenters the crowd included people of all races and genders as well as all income levels. The common thread, a belief that the return to traditional Republican values and ideas would make the country better. Nearly every speaker throughout the weekend hit on the traditional ideas of lower taxes, controlling government spending and lessening the control that government has on the economy.

The main criticism echoed by most was that Republicans had failed to distinguish themselves from Democrats in recent elections which were ultimately the reason for their downfall. The Bush administration along with Congress spent like drunken sailors and the party that had stood for fiscal government responsibility became irresponsible. One interesting tidbit, the mere mention of Ronald Reagan got by far the biggest applause. But the other name that received louder cheers than the others was Ron Paul. Just based on my conversations with fellow Republicans, should Mitt Romney not decide to run, it was Ron Paul that was the favorite among Conservatives to defeat Obama in 2012, but that’s for another entry.

The biggest reason for all of the enthusiasm was that the nominee for Governor Bob McDonnell is the candidate to lead the Republican Party away from the recent big spending of the Northeastern Republicans and back to the more fiscally responsible Reagan Republicans. It’s not every day when a politician can outshine the second most listened to talk radio program in the Country. But that was definitely the case on Saturday. McDonnell went on before Hannity and actually got the crowd more roused up than perhaps the most famous political commentator. After the convention it was McDonnell’s speech and not Hannity’s that was the talk of the town. McDonnell was able to clearly state his solutions to Virginia’s current problems based on free market solutions.

There were two central ideas of his acceptance speech which rallied everyone in attendance. His biggest issue was job growth in the Commonwealth. He spent the majority of his time talking about how he wanted to be a €œJobs€ governor. Specifically he mentioned cutting business taxes. He wanted to make sure that it was very easy for businesses to relocate to Virginia. McDonnell and Nominee for Lt Governor Bill Bolling talked about reducing the amount of paperwork needed to relocate and do business in Virginia immediately if elected. All of that could be done in 48 hours or less by simply removing all of the taxes on business. He spoke about proposals that would lower the tax on businesses below the current Maryland tax rate making sure Virginia was competitive with every state in the Country with the ability to compete on a global scale.

As the former Attorney General for the state of Virginia he spoke about the Founding documents with passion. He used the Founding Fathers as a guide for any policymaking ideals. McDonnell stressed the need to get government out of everyday life.

The guy gets it.

He specifically talked about ways to cut through the bureaucracy. Simplifying government so that the everyday citizen should be able to understand what’s going on in Richmond. There are so many loopholes being exploited by state government because people do not understand what’s going on and their tax dollars are being wasted.

He talked about taking advantage of the resources in the state of Virginia. An issue that has been very successful for Republicans is energy independence. He harped on the ability to create jobs through continued coal mining and natural gas in the western part of the state, along with the exploration of nuclear and oil on the eastern shore. Virginia has some of the largest amounts of resources in the ground specifically nuclear, yet it imports more than 2/3s of its energy. In the same breath he spoke about the need to find a balance between drilling for energy resources and not destroying land that had not yet been developed. Both he and Sean Hannity talked about conservation of nature as being vitally important to Conservative thoughts and direction.

McDonnell is definitely an ideas man. He has a very clear idea of how Virginia should move politically and most of it has been shaped through his experiences in the state. One specific example concerning Northern Virginia using the Public-Private Partnerships, such as being used with the beltway, to widen 66 so that workers don’t have to spend 2 hours on the road before getting to their jobs. As the former Attorney General he spoke a lot about combating crime specifically as it relates to children. McDonnell is very much a pro-life, pro gun rights candidate so violent crimes toward children really urked him and you could tell by the way he talked about it.

The real problem that McDonnell will face in November is the huge stack of money that any Democrat candidate will have at their disposal. The fact that the convention drew over 1200 to listen to Mitt Romney on Friday and over 10,000 to the convention on Saturday bodes terribly well though. Unfortunately for them the Obama campaign racked up an enormous amount of cash for the elections both in Virginia and New Jersey. Attack ads have already been running against McDonnell. He indirectly had to address the ads during his speech concerning his lack of support for unemployment benefits by stating that there’s no way to limit those benefits should the economy grow in the future. No matter whom the Democrat candidate is if McDonnell can explain his message to people the way he articulated it at the convention then he will be very tough to beat. The future of the Republican Party was very clear at the convention a return to the ideals of Ronald Reagan and away from the Blue-Blood Northeastern Republican views.

Virginia State Capitol

[Photo Credit]

from the Virginia Republican Convention in Richmond, udothedishes . . .