CPAC: “As many as 11,000 conservatives will make the pilgrimage to National Harbor, Md., starting Thursday for the cattle call of likely 2016 contenders known as CPAC.” (Politico)
Watch the msnbc.com livestream of CPAC here.
WHY NEOCONS LOVE PUTIN: “A standup comic often serves as his audience’s id, and so it is in this case. The neocons, on some emotional level, prefer Putin to Obama. He’s rugged. He goes shirtless. He knows his way around a Kalashnikov. He “wrestles bears and drills for oil,” as Palin put it Monday night, also on Fox. Palin, of course, is a pretty id-dy figure in her own right. She and Giuliani can say what some others who live and operate in Washington may feel constrained from saying. But every time John Bolton and Charles Krauthammer and Lindsey Graham and others carry on about Obama’s weakness, they’re also implying that he’s not half the man Putin is. And in neocon world, it always comes down to who’s the manlier man (although this makes Osama bin Laden a manlier man than Bush or Cheney, and Obama a manlier man than all of them, but never mind).” (Daily Beast)
WIDE OPEN SPACES: “As conservatives gather in the Washington area on Thursday for three days of speeches from prospective 2016 presidential candidates and discussions about the future of the GOP, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that three in 10 of all Republicans say they would not vote for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie if he ran for the White House.” (Washington Post)
IN OTHER NEWS… David Cameron's social media policy continues without a hitch http://t.co/fepJ19yNKl pic.twitter.com/onIqdfIfSY
Hardball staff Recommended
