Thoughts from the Americans for Prosperity (AP) Conference

Over 1500 people and 400 Virginians attended the first annual AP conference.  AP works to preserve liberty and freedom by limiting the scope of government and trusting that in most cases individuals can do a better job than government intervention.  One of the highlights of the conference was hearing from seven of the Republican Presidential candidates.

Giuliani gave the best speech and focused on results that he had improving government efficiency and reducing taxes in New York

McCain came in second and gave a speech about the need to eliminate earmarks and other wasteful spending.  Its easy to talk about eliminating taxes. The hard part is being willing to find and eliminate ineffective government programs and McCain did a good job addressing the harder issue.

Romney tossed out a bunch of red meat topics about eliminating taxes but didn’t seem to have a solid grasp on the practicality and impact of his proposals.

Huckabee did an ok job but he didn’t do anything to distinguish himself from the three candidates listed above.

Thompson struggled in his speech(es).  They were unorganized and he struggled to provide a common theme.

Ron Paul did a good job until he proposed eliminating the income tax and jumped off the deep end by not providing an alternative to lost revenue.  He also continued to focus on the abortion issue which seems strange given his overall libertarian platform.

Overall it was interesting to watch the dynamic of the conference between being a partisan Republican event or more of a Libertarian event.  I think a nice balance was achieved and AP will continue to be a strong voice for fiscal conservative, rugged individualists like myself.

~ by novamiddleman on October 9, 2007.