In case you missed it, Erick Erickson is not the only RedState TV rock star. Actually we have numerous RedState editors (and regulars) who regularly appear on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, internet radio, you name it. Some are permanent employees or staff columnists. Our own Brian Faughnan appears regularly on MSNBC as the conservative counterbalance to the default leftist spin.

See from last Thursday and watch how it’s done…..
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The highlight of the Redstate Gathering was Liz Cheney’s address to us, discussing world events and the involvement of the Obama administration in them.  She was a very engaging speaker, and the crowd enjoyed it immensely.  Afterward, she was very gracious with her time, posing for pictures with the attendees.

Liz Cheney from David Thompson on Vimeo.

The RedState Gathering heard from many existing and rising Conservative stars, but the speaker who truly rocked the house, biggest crowd-pleaser, was Liz Cheney.  Her “America Needs Commander in Chief, Not a Global Community Organizer” speech was made of awesome.

Unfortunately, the available video clip does not convey the electricity that Cheney brought to the Gathering. It is a great clip from a fabulous speech, but the clip covers only four paragraphs, there was much, more to the speech, and many other quotable sound bites which resonated with the audience:

• It has become somewhat fashionable today to talk about conservatives and conservatism as a movement in peril. In some quarters, we’re said to be near death. I am here today to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.

• We have learned that President Obama will not govern from the center, that he does not believe in American exceptionalism, that he thinks there is a moral equivalence between America and our adversaries, that he wants to expand the federal government until it permeates every corner of this land, and every aspect of your life, that he will raise everyone’s taxes, and that he thinks bureaucrats should choose our doctors, prescribe our medical care, and ration it if need be.

• Mr. President, in a ticking time bomb scenario, with American lives at stake, are you really unwilling to subject a terrorist to enhanced interrogation to get information to prevent the attack? Is it really your position that you would sacrifice American lives rather than use legal methods that we know work to get information that could save those lives?

• Wise men do not capitulate to terrorists simply because the terrorists file suit. Wise men do not welcome terrorists who have vowed to slaughter Americans onto the American homeland. Wise men don’t fret over whether a terrorist was read his Miranda rights. And wise men don’t deliver valuable information about how we gather intelligence into the hands of our enemies.

• Avoiding causing offense to our enemies has become a central tenet of President Obama’s foreign policy. It was this attempt to placate, to appease, not to cause offense that prevented President Obama from defending the rights of the Iranian people to free and fair elections.

• The purpose of diplomacy is not to be liked. The purpose of foreign policy is not to get applause in foreign capitals. The purpose of having a Commander-in-Chief and pursuing a national security strategy is to defend America’s interests, aggressively, effectively and unapologetically.

• Iran will not be disarmed because we talk them out of their weapons, or because we offer “apologies” for America, or because we look the other way as they continue to support terrorism around the world, or because we pretend we have mutual interests. Iran will be disarmed diplomatically only if they know we are serious about using military force if the diplomacy fails.

• America is fundamentally a conservative nation. We know that our greatness has been founded on a strong national defense, limited government, low taxes, the genius and ingenuity of the private sector, and a strong belief in individual freedoms. We know that government is more often the problem than the solution. We know that freedom isn’t free, that America’s armed forces are the best fighting force the world has ever known. And finally, we know that America is the best nation on earth, the best that has ever existed. We believe in her goodness, her strength, her hope and her example – for all who seek freedom in every corner of the world. Those are conservative values. Those are American values.

You can, and should, read the entire speech. The full transcript of her remarks to the RedState Gathering, as prepared for delivery, is available here.

When we are able to watch a video of the entire speech, hopefully, you will see the rock star moment the Gathering experienced listening to Liz Cheney speak. What you will not experience is the inspiring feeling of chatting with a confident Conservative leader. Cheney not only gave a terrific speech, she also had lunch with RedState Contributing Editors, was available to chat and pose for pictures with attendees, and even sat in the audience and listened to other speakers.

We will get a full transcript of Liz Cheney’s remarks from this past weekend as soon as possible.

She spoke on Saturday at RedState’s first Gathering. The speech was well received with lots of applause.

One of the best lines of the day came from Liz Cheney. She said we don’t need a “global community organizer” as President. Specifically, she said:

Earlier on a trip to Mexico City, our President listened to an extended anti-American screed by Nicaurgan President Daniel Ortega. And then he let the lies stand. His only response was, “I’m just grateful President Ortega didn’t blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.” Americans expect our President to defend us against lies, not embrace or ignore them. But we also expect our President to know his history. Some of the most dangerous steps this President has taken cause one to wonder how much time he has actually spent studying the history of the 20th century. In Russia, and earlier in France, President Obama declared that American nuclear disarmament would encourage the North Koreans and the Iranians to give up their nuclear ambitions.

Another Democratic President, one who led us at the beginning of the cold war, understood the danger of this approach. President Harry Truman, in April of 1950, signed a national security strategy document that pointed out “No people in history have preserved their freedom who thought that by not being strong enough to protect themselves they might prove inoffensive to their enemies.” Avoiding causing offense to our enemies has become a central tenet of President Obama’s foreign policy.

It was this attempt to placate, to appease, not to cause offense that prevented President Obama from defending the rights of the brave Iranian men and women demanding free and fair elections. It was this instinct that drove him to declare, while the Iranian mullahs were having their own people shot in the streets, “there was a debate underway in Iran.” It is this instinct that seems to be driving our incomprehensible policy of support for a thug in Honduras, a close ally of Hugo Chavez, against the wishes and constitutional rights of the Honduran people.

And it’s this desire that drives the President to plead with our enemies to talk at all costs. It puts America in a position of weakness, one that will not and cannot secure American interests.

Now as a veteran of the State Department, I can tell you that effective diplomacy is not about appeasing your enemy. It’s not about unilateral pre-emptive disarmament. America has to negotiate from a position of strength. To survive as a nation, our President can’t function as a disinterested international arbitrator. He can’t attempt to stand above America and our enemies. In other words, America needs a Commander in Chief, not a Global Community Organizer.

You can see the video here.

Liz Cheney spoke at the RedState Gathering. Among her memorable points:

“At his last press conference we learned the President does not care for either pediatricians or policemen.”

Then there was this: “America needs a Commander in Chief, not a Global Community Organizer.” For the context on this line, see the video:

As you can tell, we’ve been away and busy at the RedState Gathering.

Liz Cheney spoke. She was amazing.

“America needs a commander in chief,” she said, ” not a global community organizer.”

Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Nikki Haley, Michael Williams, Ken Cuccinelli, Karen Handel, Tom Price, Pat Toomey, Roy Blunt, Jim DeMint, and Rick Perry all joined us in person or via video.

It was an amazing time. Stand by for lots of video and pictures.

The daughters of two famous Republican politicians have been getting some serious face time in the media lately. Meghan McCain has a head start, thanks to her blog, her father’s campaign for the presidency last year and a set of beliefs which the Obama-loving drive-by media finds very close to their own. So she has been given a wealth of video footage and column inches to get out her message that even her father’s GOP is still not sufficiently Democrat Lite to successfully suck up to the generation she assumes to speak for.

McCain The Daughter has gotten so much media exposure that she’s starting to wear thin, even on the mellow nerves of crunchy cons, conservatives who are okay with some of the ways of liberalism. Meghan’s ways, especially her attitudes about sex, are not those aspects of liberalism that the crunchies are comfortable with. Rod Dreher, in his latest BeliefNet post, calls her “moronic” and “a useful idiot for the media left.”

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And, honestly? She didn’t even break a sweat.

This is how you do it, by the way. You don’t let them define the agenda; you certainly don’t let them define the terms; you concede nothing (you can always agree, but you do not concede); you keep going back to a disputed point over and over again until they get tired of trying to sneak one past you; you never lose your cool; when you catch them trying a stupid tactic like read a headline and pretend that it’s established truth, you call them on it without a hint of self-consciousness; and in this case, you don’t accept the other side’s presumptuous bluff that they speak for the American people. Because they don’t.

And you don’t give a tinker’s dam if they like you afterward. To quote Truman: if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.

Moe Lane

PS: Good job, Ms. Cheney. Just in case my reaction wasn’t already clear.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.