Pundits tend to obsess over people who will never accept the #2 spot on the ticket. For instance, during the 2008 election, every other article was about how Barack Obama was “definitely going to select Hillary Rodham Clinton as his VP,” but deep down, you had to know that wasn’t going to happen — not after all they’d been through. This election cycle, people are still pining for Clinton. For the GOP ticket, the obvious favorite is Marco Rubio… but again, I really don’t see that happening. Every once in a while I come across a name that hasn’t been widely circulated in the Veepstakes yet, but ends up being so perfect I have to wonder why no one is squawking about it. One of these people is Paul Ryan.

Roots

If you’re looking for someone who appeals to middle class voters, Paul Ryan could talk nostalgically about how his hardworking great-grandfather started the Ryan Incorporated Central construction business. Or perhaps he’ll stump about his years of driving the Wienermobile for Oscar Meyer to put himself through college. Some of his other odd jobs during college included opening mail for Wisconsin Senator Bob Kasten as a lowly intern, waiting tables at the Tortilla Coast restaurant, and fitness training at the Washington Sport and Health Club, to name a few. He’s a pretty “real” guy, wouldn’t you say?

Career

Once he had his BA in Economics, his mother urged him to give up his dreams of being a ski bum and accept a position as a staff economist for Bob Kasten, which he did. Once Kasten was pushed out by Russ Feingold, Ryan went on to write speeches and contribute to conservative think-tank Empower America. He wrote speeches for Jack Kemp during the 1996 election cycle and worked as legislative director for US Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas. He was elected to the US House of Representatives (WI) in 1999, where he still works today. He was one of three founding members of the Republican “Young Guns Program” (along with Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy) in 2008, which was wildly successful in recruiting and generating enthusiasm for up-and-coming Republican leaders. In 2010, The Daily Telegraph ranked him the “9th Most Influential US Conservative,” and he won 68 percent of the vote that year in his re-election bid. He outlined his vision for America in a detailed paper entitled, “Roadmap For America’s Future,” which discussed topics like healthcare, job creation and debt reduction — all hot topics for this election. On Capitol Hill, he is very much known as a man who thinks bold and comes up with realistic solutions to America’s greatest problems. Just last year, he was named Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget.

Continue reading to learn about Paul Ryan’s popularity & what Mitt Romney has to say about him…

Popularity

This year, editors of Human Events magazine lauded Paul Ryan as “Conservative of the Year”. Honestly, he would probably be the most exciting fresh young face Romney could use to enhance his conservative appeal.

Romney himself had this to say of Ryan (who has been serving in the Wisconsin House of Reps since 1999):

“Paul Ryan has three qualities that make him central to the definition of conservatism in America today. He’s not afraid to speak the truth. He has the gift of marrying conservative principles to practical solutions. He has the leadership abilities that turn thought into action. His success in gaining bipartisan support for his latest Medicare reform proposals exemplifies exactly what I am talking about.  With the country facing a slow-motion entitlement crisis that will eventually bankrupt us, we are extraordinarily fortunate that someone with his combination of courage, probity, and wisdom has come to the fore.”

Does this not sound like everything that Mitt Romney would need to get things done in Washington?

He’s also received positive accolades from well-known superstars like Marco Rubio, Newt Gingrich and John Huntsman to key figures like Mark Levin (Conservative Radio Host), Reince Priebus (Chairman of the Republican National Committee) and Al Cardenas (Chairman of the American Conservative Union). If you were to use Facebook as any gauge of popularity, then you might note that Romney has over 1 million fans, but Paul Ryan has over 87,000.

Interest

Paul Ryan recently told local news station FOX6 that he didn’t want to run for president this cycle because he has three young children, but he would consider a spot on the ticket as vice president because the campaign is much shorter and less demanding. He reportedly told the news station:

“I’m not going to focus on that only because it’s someone else’s decision, so what’s the point of answering that question? I’m focused on doing my job right and that’s so far away and it’s out of my control, so I just don’t spend my time worrying about it. I spend my time worrying about my job, which is balancing the budget, getting this debt under control and creating the conditions that will get jobs created in this country.”

I think it sounds like he is up to the task… don’t you?

Also at VicePresidents.com This Week…

A History Lesson: How We Choose VPs

VP Speculation Takes Center-stage!

1944 Political Cartoon

When Do We Pick The GOP VP Nominee?

Actually, let me correct the title. He didn’t just not disclose it…he lied about it. Because there’s no way he simply forgot.

From LA Times:

Between 2003 and 2007, Virginia Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, earned $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, according to a Common Cause review of the foundation’s IRS records. Thomas failed to note the income in his Supreme Court financial disclosure forms for those years, instead checking a box labeled “none” where “spousal noninvestment income” would be disclosed. [...]

In his 2009 disclosure, Justice Thomas also reported spousal income as “none.” Common Cause contends that Liberty Central paid Virginia Thomas an unknown salary that year.

Wonder if he’ll disclose her 2010 income?

Of course Thomas is famously an advocate of zero transparency when it comes to campaign contributions, so it’s not like this is necessarily surprising. Still, what could happen to Thomas for these very obvious violations? Would you be surprised if I told you absolutely nothing?

And not only will nothing happen to him, but, well, you’ll see…

But Steven Lubet, an expert on judicial ethics at Northwestern University School of Law, said such an infraction was unlikely to result in a penalty. Although unfamiliar with the complaint about Thomas’ forms, Lubet said failure to disclose spousal income “is not a crime of any sort, but there is a potential civil penalty” for failing to follow the rules. He added: “I am not aware of a single case of a judge being penalized simply for this.”

The Supreme Court is “the only judicial body in the country that is not governed by a set of judicial ethical rules,” Gillers said.

So let’s get this straight…the highest court in the land with the most at stake doesn’t have any code of ethics? Talk about unfettered and unchecked power. We seriously need to reform the SCOTUS. No more lifetime appointments. Sure, maybe lifetime appointments made sense back in 1776 when the life expectancy was 35, but not anymore. It doesn’t make any sense.

Your thoughts?

UPDATE:
This from ABC:

“It has come to my attention that information regarding my spouse’s employment required in Part III B of my financial disclosure report was inadvertently omitted due to a misunderstanding of the filing instructions,” Thomas wrote in a letter to the committee that handles the reports.

I call shenanigans. Especially when you consider this…

None of Thomas’ forms, covering activities through Dec. 31, 2009, mention his wife’s work at Liberty Central, a conservative political education group she co-founded in January 2009 in part to energize Tea Party activists.

But the group did not officially launch until May 2010, which will only be covered during in the next disclosure period.

More as it develops…

Why does Sarah Palin seem to command such attention?

Palin, as media critic Howard Kurtz reports, is a crafty person when it comes using the media. Somehow, she is able to get most of the mainstream media to hang on her every word and watch her Facebook and Twitter sites for her latest views as if one were waiting for white smoke from St. Peter’s to announce a new Pope.

Part of the reason that the press and most of the political establishment tend to focus on the former governor is because they want to take her down. Think of blogger Andrew Sullivan and his years-long focus on all things Palin. The media, liberals and moderate conservatives all want to show that she’s a fake, an idiot; not presidential timber.

I would agree with all this, and yet she hasn’t gone away. Why?

I think Palin came along at the right time in American history. If we were in an alternative universe where there were no wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, where there never was a housing bubble or Great Recession, there might have been no Sarah Palin, or at least, Palin would still be an obscure governor from a small state.

Krurtz gives a clue as to Palin’s popularity in this paragraph:

For now, Palin is the accidental multimillionaire who positions herself as an ordinary hockey mom. She struck a note of sarcasm with the Times’ Draper while discussing news organizations: “They’re the elite. They know much more than I know and other people like me!”

She could just as easily be referring to Wall Street wizards or housing lawyers or congressional leaders. “Her message is that all the people who think they’re so smart aren’t really so smart. That’s a message that resonates,” Frum says.

John Ellis, a seasoned political analyst and a cousin of George W. Bush, puts it this way:

“‘She’s too stupid’ is what the Establishment GOP really thinks about Sarah Palin. ‘Good-looking,’ but a ‘ditz.’ This is unfertile ground, since Palin can turn the argument on a dime and say: ‘They drive the country into bankruptcy, they underwrite Fannie and Freddie, they bail out Goldman Sachs, they fight wars they don’t want to win, they say enforcing the immigration laws is silly and they call me stupid! I’ll give you a choice: You can have their smarts or my stupidity, which one do you want?’”

That’s why the images of Palin hunting and fishing and telling Willow she can’t have boys upstairs may matter more than her policy positions—and separate her from a president with a Harvard Law degree. If the smart guys have failed, if the credentialed creative class has messed things up, it opens the door for a plain-spoken populist ready to refudiate the old order.

That message, naturally, rankles the journalistic elite, which nonetheless serves as a megaphone for Palin’s musings.

In some ways, the smart guys have failed- miserably. And this is not just in politics, but in the media and the economy as well. Palin’s rise is more about a lack of trust in, well anything except Sarah Palin.

And that’s the problem. Those of us that look down on Palin as not being smart don’t get that being smart is percieved as part of the problem. Palin’s homespun wisdom seems a lot more reliable than placing our trust in smart leaders who then procede to lead the economy down the drain. This is a message that the media and liberals must pay attention to, but so-called establishment conservatives (or those who don’t like Ms. Palin) have to be aware of as well. The way to challenge Sarah Palin is NOT to talk about how stupid she is; instead it is about re-establishing trust between the average American and the big institutions that are a part of our daily lives.

That’s why the Democrats got a “shellackin’” earlier this month, and why folks like Mike Castle and Bob Inglis got beaten in GOP primaries. The smart guys could not realize that they were the problem.

In unsettling times such as these, demagogues like Palin are successful because they offer simple answers and shed a light on the ruling elite.

The answer to Palin is to make America function again. It’s to restore confidence in our economic and politicial sectors that haven’t been working well at all.

If we can do that, then maybe Sarah Palin will go away.

Crossposted at Big Tent Revue

Really Arizona legislature? Really Governor Jan Brewer? This is the time when you decide to make this switch?

And, from Politico, the text of the bill reads like some of the craziest satire…

“Public school pupils should be taught to treat and value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people,” the text of the bill reads.

Haha, so…that legislation you passed several weeks doesn’t teach people to resent other races or classes of people? Hmmm….

Here’s more from this wacky law…

The law prohibits the teaching of any classes that promote “the overthrow of the United States government,” “resentment toward a race or class of people,” “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

Neither the governor nor the bill’s supporters have identified examples where a Chicano studies class has advocated the “overthrow” of the federal government, and the bill’s opponents in the state have expressed outrage over what they see as a law that unfairly targets Hispanics.

Here’s more about the schools that are the target of this bill…

The Tucson Unified School District program offers specialized courses in African-American, Mexican-American and Native-American studies that focus on history and literature and include information about the influence of a particular ethnic group.

For example, in the Mexican-American Studies program, an American history course explores the role of Hispanics in the Vietnam War, and a literature course emphasizes Latino authors.

So then…how many of you have taken ethnic studies classes in college? Remember them? If so, remember how they were EXACTLY like what’s described in the above quoted passage? If not, please tell me, but that’s what I remember.

But now we find the real reason why this is happening…political opportunism…

[State schools chief Tom] Horne, a Republican running for attorney general, said the program promotes “ethnic chauvinism” and racial resentment toward whites while segregating students by race. He’s been trying to restrict it ever since he learned that Hispanic civil rights activist Dolores Huerta told students in 2006 that “Republicans hate Latinos.”

Really? You’re going to not only get offended but also quote a civil rights activist?

Another question…it seems like the only schools affected are in Tucson, but obviously bills have broader implications once passed. What about the universities? Are they prohibited from teaching Chicano studies or Black studies classes?

The answer is no, not at all. In fact, apparently no ethnic studies classes at all will be affected in any way whatsoever…

The measure doesn’t prohibit classes that teach about the history of a particular ethnic group, as long as the course is open to all students and doesn’t promote ethnic solidarity or resentment.

But hey, thank whatever deity you believe in for laws that solve problems that haven’t even started yet. Whew!

And, by the way, for those of you who have taken any sort of ethnic studies classes…did you ever advocate overthrowing the government or hating people of other races after you took them? Sure, some may build up a healthy disdain for those forefathers and foremothers who violently discriminated against folks just because they were different, but unless “learn to hate people of other races” is in the curriculum, it’s up to the individual to not place the sins of the past on the present’s shoulders.

Of course, you know what might cause hate and resentment towards an ethnic group?

Arizona knows!

And scene…

Rick Ungar pivots off of conservative talker Debbie Schlussel’s investigation and comes up with the following about Freedom Alliance’s “Freedom Concerts,” which were supposed to raise money to send the children of fallen soldiers to college and help wounded soldiers pay their bills.

Apparently they’ve done little of either.

The numbers…

In 2008, the charity raised $8,781,431 in revenue and gave out just $1,060,275.57–or 12%–to seriously wounded soldiers and for scholarships to kids of soldiers who have died. About 80% was spent on expenses, including $1,055,791 on postage, $925,392 on printing and $157,041 on travel.

Folks, when a charity’s expenditure on stamps equals the amount they spent fulfilling the actual mission of the charity, something is seriously wrong.

It is a well established rule of thumb that a legitimate charity is expected to spend 75% of its revenues on the mission of the charity. In 2008, Freedom Alliance spent 12%

And that was a good year!

The charity’s 2007 tax return reveals only 7% was spent on scholarships and payments to veterans. The 2006 returns reveal a truly appalling situation – while the organization took in almost $11 million, they spent only $400,000 on scholarships and grants to injured soldiers.

And apparently conservatives warned Hannity about his profligate ways. Schlussel shares this email from a “well known conservative writer” and his conversation with a friend at FOX News:

The guy went on to tell me about Hannity’s “Freedom Concerts,” which are staged across the country with the proceeds going to children of slain soldiers. Of course, as the guy tells it, there’d be a lot more money every concert to go to the cause if Hannity didn’t demand–and get–use of a Gulfstream 5 plane to fly him and his family/entourage to the concerts; a “fleet” (that’s the word the guy used) of either Cadillac or Lincoln SUVs for him and his family/entourage; and several suites at really expensive hotels for him and his family/entourage. The promoter apparently values Hannity’s star demands at well over $200,000 per event. The source says he heard that Oliver North pulled Hannity aside at one of the concerts and told him that this had to stop. But that may mean that, from now on, Hannity has to fly on a G4 instead of a G5, gets only a few luxury SUVs, and two or three suites.

Here’s the thing…the goal of this organization is very valuable and if it worked the way it should it would help a lot of people. So I applaud those who started this because I’m sure the intentions were noble.

Still, Hannity now has a choice…either return the money he has taken out of the organization (since we all know he can afford it) or suffer the wrath of conservatives, liberals and military personnel everywhere.

In short, do the right thing Sean.

More as it develops…

I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning…

The Tea Party’s choice in the Florida Republican primary, Marco Rubio, began his address to a crowd of conservative conventioneers by taking a shot at President Obama for reading from a teleprompter. He did it while standing in front of two easily visible teleprompters.

It was unclear whether the devices were placed there for him or for other speakers at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference, or CPAC, at which he was a keynote speaker. A HuffPost reporter, however, watched his speech from the front row and Rubio could clearly be seen looking intently and repeatedly at the teleprompters. He also had a stack of papers with him at the lectern and flipped through them as the speech progressed, perhaps unwilling to take any chance he would flub the swipe at Obama.

Nonetheless, he supposedly killed.

Here are some choice cuts of Rubio’s speech…

Personally, I think Rubio offers a really intellectually dishonest speech there. Democrats don’t want to abandon the free enterprise system. And what does he mean by “changing” American as opposed to “fixing” America? The great thing about democracies is their ability to change when things are broken. And folks, if you don’t think things were broken, well, I’ve got some beachfront property I’d like to sell you in Kansas.

But I suppose this gets back to my core problems with conservatism. It really doesn’t seem to have evolved since Goldwater and Buckley. If anything, they’re becoming more entrenched and out of touch with what really drives our economic engine. Say what you will about Dems, but if you ask nearly any liberal politician what they think of our place in the world as a superpower or a global economic force, nobody is looking to lose and many are just as concerned about the deficit as your average Tea Partier. But what I’m hearing from Republicans and Libertarians and Tea Partiers is that they just want to return to unchecked Friedmanism. Well, it didn’t work and even Greenspan admitted that.

Regardless, keep your eye on Rubio as he could probably be the bridge between the Tea Party and the GOP that Republican politicos desperately want…and need.

I’m not kidding. It’s the perfect combination. A slew of ill informed protesters who heart Glenn Beck, think they know “true” conservative values and are convinced our country is turning into a dictatorship and Sarah Palin…an ill informed politician who hearts Glenn Beck, claims she knows “true” conservative values and loves to convince folks our country is turning into a dictatorship…and that Obama wants to kill your grandparents.

What’s not to love?

So yes, I’m bringing this up because she’s headlining their first convention, and that’s where it gets very interesting. Because while the Republicans have a big opportunity to pick up steam going in 2012, the Tea Party movement could completely undermine it…in much the same way the Deaniacs did in 2004.

A political scientist explains…

But courting what many call a fringe and inchoate movement carries huge risks, argues Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, in Atlanta.

He says a Republican shift toward the Reaganesque Tea Party ideal could lead to a sort of pogrom for moderate Republicans, forcing out those (think Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe) who don’t hew precisely to rock-hard conservative principles around economic freedom and limited government interference.

“The Republican Party is trapped by their base, which is going increasingly conservative,” says Mr. Abramowitz. “Yes, Republicans can do fairly well in the 2010 elections – it’s entirely possible that they could pick up 20 to 30 seats in the House – but they could read the wrong message from that. In 2012, if the economy is doing reasonably well again and Obama’s popularity has stabilized, that strategy is going to be very risky and this could all come back to haunt them.”

Oh, and Palin is getting paid anywhere from $75K to $100K to speak at the event. Looks like freedom pays handsomely!

My question: Does this hint at a third party run in 2012?

First Drudge tried to make it seem like Obama is forcing a news station to not report a story about people who don’t want the Olympics to come to the Chicago…

…and now John Boehner jumps on the pile…

House Minority Leader John Boehner torched President Barack Obama Wednesday for his European trip to pitch the Chicago Olympics bid, criticizing the president for “going to go off to Copenhagen when we’ve got serious issues here at home that need to be debated.”

Yeah John, debate which serious issues?

How you’re not going to agree to any health care reforms?

Or any energy reforms?

Or education reforms?

Or market reforms?

This is getting ridiculous.

First things first….obviously most conservatives don’t believe this. However, Ann Coulter has said something very similar.

The audio…

And here’s a partial transcript…

DERBYSHIRE: Among the hopes that I do not realistically nurse is the hope that female suffrage will be repealed. But I’ll say this – if it were to be, I wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep.

COLMES: We’d be a better country if women didn’t vote?

DERBYSHIRE: Probably. Don’t you think so?

COLMES: No, I do not think so whatsoever.

DERBYSHIRE: Come on Alan. Come clean here [laughing].

COLMES: We would be a better country? John Derbyshire making the statement, we would be a better country if women did not vote.

DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, probably.

Did you note how Derbyshire said he’s in favor of freedom later on in the interview? Wow.

Seriously…how can these folks hate the government so much that they’ll say such inane, bigoted, ignorant stuff like this? Amazing.

“The role Glenn Beck is playing is harmful in its totality. My hunch is that he is a comet blazing across the media sky right now—and will soon flame out. Whether he does or not, he isn’t the face or disposition that should represent modern-day conservatism. At a time when we should aim for intellectual depth, for tough-minded and reasoned arguments, for good cheer and calm purpose, rather than erratic behavior, he is not the kind of figure conservatives should embrace or cheer on.”
- Pete Wehner in Commentary magazine

Obviously I agree, and not just because I think Beck is a hack.

We need REAL, honest debate and the Becks of the world (Hannity, O’Reilly, Malloy, Rhodes) are only their to make a fast buck off of people’s ignorance. These folks aren’t truth tellers. They merely 21st century snake oil salesman, only this time they’re bottling impotent partisan rage and saying that you can make a difference if you just scream loudly enough.

Well, we’re seeing where all this screaming is leading and it’s not good…especially online. The internet is lousy with thousands of garbage blogs that do nothing but parrot Beck’s lunacy and the net effect is a very, very small minority that gets attention from the media because they’re simply too crazy to ignore.

And that’s why conservatives need to run away from this guy as quickly as they can. Because while he may be responsible for a drop in Obama’s popularity numbers, he’s doing absolutely nothing to bolster yours. You still are less trusted than Democrats in never every category and you’re not going to win elections on the basis of deficit reduction alone.

In any event, fair warning. Don’t say we didn’t tell you so.

Numerous reports are surfacing in the mainstream media that Obama is giving a speech to America’s students that will somehow brainwash/indoctrinate/cast magical spells over them.

Why? Because the lesson plan asks the kids to think about what the President means by his speech. Basically, the White House is posing completely open ended questions designed to make kids think for themselves.

But hey, take a look for yourself at how shockingly socialist/communist/radical it is. Joseph Goebbels couldn’t have written a better one…

Obama’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009 Menu of Classroom Activities PreK-6 –

Folks, I genuinely can not understand the mindset that would read that lesson plan and come to the conclusion that’s being spread across the media.

And to that point, here’s the response from the chairman of the Republican party in Florida…

“The address scheduled for September 8, 2009, does not allow for healthy debate on the President’s agenda, but rather obligates the youngest children in our public school system to agree with our President’s initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates.”

Do note that the quote is from a story that’s on the front page of Yahoo titled, “Parents angry at Obama.” That’s how far this story has spread.

And, again, I ask angry for what? Asking kids to think for themselves? Asking them to interpret what somebody means after they give a speech? Trying to turn a speech into a teaching moment instead of just another “Shut up and listen” assembly?

Seriously, what in the hell is wrong with these people?

Anti-reform advocates are the gift that just keeps on giving. Take the case of David McKalip, who sent the above image out to his email list.

Does he genuinely not understand the implications of distributing trash like this? Because not only is it guaranteed to get out to the broader media, it also seriously undermines any arguments be brings to the table. And for a member of the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates to do this? Does he seriously have this little common sense?

Here’s more about Mr. McKalip:

He’s the chair of the Florida Taxpayers Union, the founder of Doctors For Patient Freedom, and anti-health-care-reform group, the president of the Florida Neurological Society, and an all-around anti-government activist who has appeared at events with GOP members of Congress and whose op-eds opposing reform have appeared in the St. Petersburg Times.

He’s also a member of the American Medical Association who has been quoted by reporters for the Associated Press, Business Week, the Palm Beach Post, the Tampa Tribune, and the Florida Sun-Sentinel opposing health care reform and taxes.

Listen, I’m a pretty reasonable person, but I’m starting to have a hard time believing that a fair amount of these anti-government folks aren’t closet racists. I obviously hate to paint with the broad brush, but as more and more of these stories pop up and you see all of those posters at the Tea Party rallies…ugh. Trust me, I want to think better of those folks, but they keep giving me reasons to not.

Now this is true free market capitalism if I’ve ever seen it.

Apparently the American Conservative Union offered FedEx their support if they’d sign off on a costly outreach campaign. FedEx said no and the organization backed UPS.

More at True/Slant.

“I just wish everyone would take a step back from this extremist brink. It can’t lead anywhere good. At best, it will bring the right-wing blogosphere into disrepute, and at the worst it could lead to violence if you encourage these real nuts out there.”
- Charles Johnson, founder and lead blogger at Little Green Footballs

Gee, sounds familiar…

And what’s the response from his blogosphere brethren?

Attack, attack, attack.

Ugh.

Nate Silver compiles the numbers and makes a pretty good educated guess…as he often does…

based on news accounts of 306 “Tea Party” protests in different cities across the country yesterday, I get a cumulative attendance of 262,025, with a fair number of (probably mostly smaller) events still unaccounted for.

These figures, wherever possible, are drawn from objective attempts to estimate crowd sizes, such as police accounts or estimates made by reporters. Organizers of these events have strong incentives to exaggerate crowd sizes. Participants in them may have some of the same incentives, and it is notoriously difficult for people to accurately estimate crowd sizes once attendance has reached more than a few dozen individuals.

And the top 10 Tea Parties?

Atlanta, GA – 7,000
Denver, CO – 5,000
Phoenix, AZ – 5,000
Madison, WI – 5,000
Bossier City, LA – 5,000
San Antonio, TX – 4,500
Olympia, WA – 4,500
Lansing, MI – 4,500
Jacksonville, FL – 4,500
Oklahoma City, OK – 4,500

Again, congrats to all of you who exercised your right to protest yesterday. It felt good, didn’t it? Not treasonous at all, right? Just remember that the next time you see somebody protesting against decisions you agree with.

Also, I hope you enjoy coming out on a weekly basis from now until you’ve changed things. Because that’s what it’ll take. In other words, don’t let Fox News and Freedom Works lull you into a false sense of “one and done.”