Obama’s a Dirty Word at NRA Meeting
By Don | May 16, 2009
The Republican party may have lost their power in Washington, D.C., but this past weekend in Phoenix they faced a mini-revival at the annual NRA convention.
On Friday at the Celebrating American Values Leadership Forum, NRA members heard from a bevy of Republicans from RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who reminded everyone that he was a conservative, to former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell who warned the attendees that the U.S. was in the middle of a doomsday scenario under Obama.
Wayne LaPierre the CEO and Executive Vice President of the NRA delivered a blistering attack on the media for their biased coverage of gun issues. LaPierre said that media dishonesty has a detrimental effect on the whole American system's willingness to lie and cited as examples of liars on the gun issue, Sens. Feinstein and Durbin and Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, who do so frequently and with impunity.
He added that because of agenda journalism of the New York Times and others that the media just make stuff up when it comes to guns. One example of that was the recent ABC special with Diane Sawyer where it was all about bad people with guns and nothing about the other side. LaPierre said that is due to the fact that such stories are an embarrassment to the media and the political standard of the country.
Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action had one of the better lines of the day when he referred to the surge in gun sales since November by saying, “Obama deserves credit for the only part of the economy that is going strong - gun sales.”
Sen. John McCain focused on border security, which is a big problem in Arizona, and reminded the audience that Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the world thanks to the influx of drug dealers and other criminals from Mexico.
Michael Reagan gave the feel-good speech of the day with fond reminiscences of his father and mentioned that as an adoptee he thanks God every day that Jimmy Carter wasn’t looking for a son.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who guided his state through the Katrina disaster, spoke on global warming and asked the audience how much they would be willing to pay for lowering carbon emissions and called Obama’s plans nothing more than a tax.
Former Clinton strategist Dick Morris eschewed standing behind the podium and hit Obama on his health care plans, saying that what we don’t want is something similar to Canada where there is an eight-week wait for cancer treatment and cancer death rates are at 41% compared to 32% in the U.S.
Morris also hit the GOP hard by saying that “The morons and knuckleheads who run the Republican party can’t be trusted to save conservatism.”
Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney was the final speaker and gave what may be a prelude to his stump speech for 2012. By appearing before the convention for a second straight year there is no doubt that he is currently the favorite son of the NRA going forward.
I should add that it wasn’t all GOP all the time as there were video appearances by Rep. David Boren (D-OK) , Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) all gun-rights supporters.
With the Republicans still trying to find their way the majority of the speakers carefully avoided any mention of the party and instead chose to focus on policies of the Obama administration and how this will affect their future ability to possess a firearm.
Based on the large attendance at this meeting which last year topped 8,000 and this year filled a good portion of the U.S. Airways Arena, it is a voting bloc not to be ignored.
14 Comments | Post a Comment
I am a Life Member of the N.R.A and a resident of Massachusetts. My right as well of the rights of other Massachusetts citizens to keep and bear arms was infringed by former Gov. Romney’s refusal to allow the Massachusetts “Assault Weapons Ban” to sunset with the federal ban.
If the N.R.A leadership thinks that Mitt Romney will defend the Second Amendment, they are complete fools and need to be removed from their positions.
The N.R.A and America need leaders who understand what the Second Amendment really means.
Mitt Romney is NOT the answer. Apparently, the N.R.A is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Robert Monahan writes:
May 18 at 1:43 pm | #2 | Link
I am a Life Member of the N.R.A and a resident of Massachusetts. My right as well of the rights of other Massachusetts citizens to keep and bear arms was infringed by former Gov. Romney’s refusal to allow the Massachusetts “Assault Weapons Ban” to sunset with the federal ban.
If the N.R.A leadership thinks that Mitt Romney will defend the Second Amendment, they are complete fools and need to be removed from their positions.
The N.R.A and America need leaders who understand what the Second Amendment really means.
Mitt Romney is NOT the answer. Apparently, the N.R.A is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Sir:
I too am a Life Member of NRA, and have been one such since the mid 1970’s. I have also at times wondered as to what it is or might be that drives the NRA.
On other aspects. Romney was a looser in the last election, the presidential one,and I believe would remain such in 2012. Of course, what with 8 years of “Shrub” as he had been described, I believe that my dead cat, wearing the proper label, would have stood a better chance than did McCain/Palen, about whom the following question. Whatever might it have been that prompted the Republican Party to nominate those two?
Thank you8for your input.
What I’d like to know is where all these NRA members were when it was time to vote. The impression I get is this: they either kicked their feet and stayed home because they didn’t like Obama and McCain wasn’t conservative enough for them (or because they didn’t think Obama would win, which was really dumb) or they succumbed to guilt as a result of being told over and over that they were racists if they didn’t vote for Obama.
As an NRA member, I’m pretty astonished that this “big voting bloc” made no apparent appearance at the polls. If gun owners had done something besides sit home and complain, we’d at least have someone in the White House whose firearms policies we didn’t have to worry about. Whether or not the previous poster thinks McCain/Palin was a good choice, I’d like to know this: did he stay home and complain, or did he at least vote for McCain? If not, how does everyone like how it turned out?
The next time around it’s important to remember that there is no such thing as a perfect candidate, and refusal to vote for a candidate because he doesn’t meet every requirement just hands the election to the guy you REALLY don’t want. If we have firearms after Obama in four years, it might do you some good to remember what we got this time, largely due to conservatives either just pitching a fit or exhibiting apathy.
Oh, I forgot the other possible scenario—let me guess: all the gun owners voted for that utter loon, Ron Paul. How’d that work out, and when are we going to get over this hope that some weirdo third-party candidate has a ghost of a chance in an election? So, whether, as I noted above, it was:
1. The Republican candidate didn’t satisfy every possible conservative issue
2. “White Guilt” drove everyone to vote for a known enemy of personal firearms ownership or
3. A whole bunch of people threw all their votes away by voting for some third-party, spooky, blithering idiot—
The fact is this: We’re stuck with Obama. Next time don’t let this happen. NRA members, if we all get off our butts and vote correctly next time, we may actually be able to own something more deadly than a cooked cauliflower to defend ourselves and our families with. If we let it happen again, kiss your guns goodbye.
Mr. Ford:
In answer to your question, damned if I know, this in response to your where were all those NRA members were when it was time to vote. I will note that NRA Membership amounts to what, roughly 4,000,000, a better question re the often mentioned 80,000,000 gun owners might be, where were they on election day? As for myself, while I didn’t much care for McCain/Palen, I voted for them or against Obama/Biden. Cannot speak for anyone else, however as I had mentioned eatrlier, given 8 years of “Shrub”, I believe that my dead cat could have done better than many Republican candidates, most especially better than McCain/Palen did. Has Bush beaten feet back to Texas?
I like Palin, regardless of the current campaign, as pointed out by a columnist this week, to “Quaylize” Palin as being stupid (the columnist pointed out that Chris Matthews, a fan of President Kennedy, ridiculed Palin for having someone ghostwrite her upcoming book, while ignoring the fact that it was mostly written by speechwriter Theodore Sorenson). And regardless of what you think of Bush (I thought I’d heard the last of that “Shrub” stuff when Molly Ivins headed for the big leftist party in the sky) Bush was a lot better than he’s being given credit for. Whether or not he was much of a president will, I suppose, be for future generations to decide.
In any case, while we can quibble over whether or not Bush deserves to be called “Shrub,” would you rather have had him or Al Gore during the events of September 11, 2001? While he won’t be my pick as favorite president, he was by no means the worst we’ve ever had in this country. It’s time to quit sniping at Republicans, traditionally champions of gun owners, and remember the events of the last election so that it doesn’t happen again.
Note: please add to the above for clarification because I left a bit out: JFK’s book Profiles in Courage was largely written by speechwriter Sorenson.
If Romney is the future of the so-called republican party then I will be switching my affiliation to democrat.
That way I can see the knife coming.
I did vote for Paul, and will do so again. I see the benefits of at least having a 2 party system, and that’s precisely what his run was, trying to restore a two party system rather than a not quite as radical as the “other” party system that moves us in a bad direction. He is one of the last true republicans. The rest of the party has been duped and drug to “moderateville” over to the left of center by the likes of Romney and McCain.
Can any of you Romney supporters explain how the things he did as gov were “republican”?
Mr. Ford:
Let’s forget about Molly, who perhaps coined the phrase. Otherwise, while I voted for Bush, I believe that he, other things aside, left a greast deal to be desired, from most any point of view.
As for guns and Republicans being the traditional champions of gun owners, you might want to rethink that position. Of course, while not every Democrat is a Gun Grabber”, not every Republican is “Pro Gun”, which means to me, a reliable opponent of Gun Control, as same is usually proposed, that being things that adversley impact the rights of law abiding citizens.
An addition to my closing question/comment, re Republicans being the traditional chanpions of gun rights, during periods when they held majorities in Congress and the presidency, how many federal gun laws were repealed, and when, where or how did they act to check the antics of the BATFE, as it is currently named?
In any case, given Obama as president, and his appointees, I expect that were the economy not in such a hole, gun sales would be greater than they currently are, or are reported to be.
Everyone has their own personal agenda. As to voting for Paul, as I asked previously: How did that work out? What typically happens when people vote for the third-party candidate? Well, let’s see: Theodore Roosevelt/Taft/Wilson—who won? Clinton/George H.W. Bush/Perot? McCain/Obama/Paul? Are we seeing a pattern? Go ahead and “vote your conscience” next time, and Obama will thank you. What’s that old definition of insanity again—when someone does the same things over and over and expects a different result?
Romney wasn’t my pick. Neither was Bush; in fact, I was a Tancredo supporter. When he crashed and burned, reality hit me—we had two real choices, and I sure wasn’t going to vote for the liberal, or throw my vote away to appease my “conscience.” Unfortunately, there weren’t enough people who thought like me, apparently, and so people need to stop complaining and enjoy what we got. Especially the “last true republican” supporters.
I am also a Life member of the NRA and what I see is this: unless the GOP makes a sharp right turn, it will die. The result in the last election is due to years of the GOP electing RINO’s, Neocons, and members of the “Get-A-Long Gang”. McCain was a military hero, but the man is the Chief of the RINO’s. McCain/Feingold, McCain/Kennedy….see the pattern? He shot himself in the foot with his refusal to go on the attack against Obama and then torpedoed his own VP candidate as she attempted to call Obama out on his far-left policies. Idiocy, foolishness, moderate suicide, that is what has plagued the GOP for years. We need a TRUE CONSERVATIVE to run against Obama in 2012.
I was a Massachusetts citizen during the Romney governorship. He is no ‘friend’ of the Second Amendment. I was a pro-gun activist in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at the time and we knew quite well that he would NOT stand up to the Massachusetts Legislature and support and defend the Second Amendment.
As a side-note, I am also one of the top ten independent membership recruiters for the National Rifle Association in the world, having recruited almost 800 members in the last couple of years by myself. I heartily support the NRA, but I am intensely skeptical of Mitt Romney, because I fought against him myself as a Massachusetts resident.
May 18 at 11:42 am | #1 | Link
Re “Obama’s a Dirty Word at NRA Meeting”, I’m willing to take Don’s word for that proposition.
More important than that might be WHY, and WHAT, WHY being self explaining, WHAT involving what the often mentioned 80,000,000 LAW ABIDING GUN OWNERS in ths country are willing and able to do about it.
By the way, the question of WILLING might involve, perish the thought, a little actual effort, on the part of these MILLIONS, as with visiting the local offices of your “elected things”, writing/emailing and calling, on an ongoing basis, remember people, ON AN ONGOING BASIS, not simply at the last moment, of a panic situation.