George. I finally stood in the same room with George.

Our wake-up call at the hotel this morning was at 3:30. Horrible. As far as I'm concerned, that's still the dead of night. A race to get ready, and then into a cab that was still charging the nighttime surcharge to get to the Omni in time to see the President. We were told to arrive there for about 5am to go through Secret Service. When we arrived there was already a line throughout the lobby of the Omni. Apparently, some people started lining up around 3. There was a moment or two that we worried we wouldn't even get in. Our new friends (met in the Steyn line yesterday) Gina and Jaycee of Clarion University in Pennsylvania and their crew were already there, and downright cranky. It seems that when they arrived there were no organizers on site to direct people traffic. A line had formed itself, which as it turned out was not in the right place, and everyone who had been in it ended up getting displaced to the back of the correct line. Jaycee especially was livid:

"All these years everyone has hated Bush, but now when we want to see him, everyone loves him?"

Hundreds of people didn't make it into the ballroom for the 7:15 start. Thankfully, we did.

The anticipation was palpable. I couldn't help but make the comparison to back in the days when I used to camp out for concert tickets!

When Senator McConnell introduced the president, the crowd erupted.

He thanked us for coming out so early (the speech had originally be scheduled for 10:20, but he had to fly out to TN to survey the tornado damage), cracked a few jokes about becoming "father of the bride" to Jenna as she prepares to marry, and then went on to praise his vice president, calling him the "best Vice President in history".

The theme of the whole speech seemed to be how history would view the Bush administration. And how at this time, decisions made that many people criticized are already proving to have been right. Stem cells. Court appointments. Afghanistan. The Surge....

You know, since I've come to Washington, I've been reading a lot of history. Laura notes it's probably because I'm making up for lost time. (Laughter.) Over the past few years I've read three books on George Washington -- or as I call him, the "original George W." (Laughter and applause.)

It is interesting to me that they are still analyzing the record of our first President. My attitude is if they're still analyzing Number 1, 43 doesn't need to worry about it.

Labels: CPAC, George W Bush