Yesterday I had the great privilege of attending the Michigan Prosperity Forum, sponsored by Americans For Prosperity.  The roster of speakers was fabulous – Herman Cain, Michelle Malkin, Andrew Breitbart, Ann McElhinney, and other lesser known, but equally interesting and informative speakers, such as Tim Phillips, who is AFP President. 

Rick Santorum, and Mitt & Ann Romney, also stopped by to speak to the assembled guests.

 The conference began by singing our National Anthem, and we bowed our heads in prayer to ask for a blessing on the assembly. 

* The first speaker was Scott Hagerstrom, AFP Michigan Director.  He touched upon matters of concerns in our state – Right To Work, rising gas taxes, limited government and economic liberty. 

* Herman Cain was next on the program – what an upbeat and exciting speaker!  He is no longer a candidate for President, but is still speaking out against the current administration in Washington, and influencing potential voters.  Herman is still very much involved in influencing tax reform efforts, and spoke again about his 9-9-9 plan!  He pointed out that there are voter groups that we can influence, and try to recruit them to vote for our Republican candidates in November:

– Students.  He himself recently made an appearance along with Stephen Colbert to a group of university students.  Why?  Because he knew students would show up to see Colbert, and he would have an audience for his message as well.

– Disgruntled Democrats.  He says there are at least 12 million of them who could potentially be encouraged to vote for our Republican candidate.

He concluded his address by reminding us to stay informed and stay inspired!

* Tim Phillips, President of AFP, spoke briefly.  He let us know that AFP is strictly a private organization that does not receive tax money of any kind.  He said that one of Obama’s first television political ad targets AFP. 

Mr. Phillips pointed out that gas prices are the direct result of administration policies, as demonstrated by the actions and words of Ken Salazar and Steven Chu – who, before taking his current post, was in favor of U.S. gas prices being brought to the levels they are in Europe.  Mr. Phillips stressed that AFP is an organization of conservatives, and not an appendage to any political party.

* Governor Rick Santorum made a campaign stop to speak to our group.  He spoke easily and fluently (no teleprompter needed here, as my seat neighbor pointed out!)  He said that we are a different, exceptional nation.  A nation that has traditionally believed in the dignity of human life.  He told how his grandfather came here from Italy, and the only benefit he sought was one that the USA had in abundance – liberty.  His grandfather worked first in the auto industry, then in the steel industry in western Pennsylvania. 

Governor Santorum said he believes that ObamaCare is the greatest threat to our freedom today, a game changer.  He reminded us that he was an early proponent of Health Savings Accounts.  He said that he has always believed that Global Warming is not climate science, but political science!  He does not believe in bailouts for anyone, whether it be Wall Street, the Penn steel industry or the Detroit auto industry, but he can’t understand why some people had no problem with the Wall Street bailouts, but thought that different rules applied to the Detroit auto industry (me too). 

He wants to bring industry back to America by letting the markets work, reducing regulations, so that everyone – from the college educated to the high school educated – will have opportunities.  The Santorum family accompanied him, including his beautiful little girl – they passed close to us on the way to the green room, but they did not make an official appearance.

* Our next speaker was Michelle Malkin – Wow!  Michelle is a ball of energy, tiny and so attractive!  She spoke about the crony capitalism that exists in the Obama administration. She explained the meaning of a Chicago term – boodleism.  An online dictionary definition: “Slang, the practice of bribery or illicit payments, especially to or from a politician. Also boodling.” Michelle spoke at length about the various green initiatives that have been ripe opportunities for ‘boodleism’ – Solyndra and many others.  She illustrated how the connections exist between organizations that once employed Barack Obama, donors, and government payola.  Our goal should be to reduce the size of government, and used this quote:  “As government grows, corruption flows”.  She also spoke about the next arena of crony capitalism – the health care industry  – see her post on the subject at michellemalkin.com:

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/02/24/the-4-billion-obamacare-slush-fund-for-progressives/

We got an added benefit of a Q & A session with Michelle, to fill a gap in the program!

* Andrew Breitbart spoke briefly, but had a very important message, delivered in his irreverent style.  The message is this:  Our job is to do everything we can to deprive Obama of reelection – no matter who the Republican candidate is, we must support him.  Breitbart said he is sick of being told that this candidate or that candidate is “not a true conservative”.  He said – half jokingly – that if you don’t do as he says, he will come to your house and beat you up!  He reminded us that the Occupy movement is still with us, and that they are Obama’s tool to change the subject from unemployment and the economy.  He said that he didn’t watch most of the debates.  The questions posed to the candidates concentrate too much on social issues, are designed to make them look foolish, and to change the subject away from the economy and unemployment.  He pointed out that he had his four children, then had things taken care of.  He didn’t need the government to tell him what to do!

* Both Ann and Mitt Romney spoke of their years living in Michigan.  Ann Romney was particularly effective, I thought, and Mitt spoke in a relaxed and friendly way – a definite difference from the stilted speech he delivered to the Detroit Economic Club on Friday.  His wife is a huge asset to his campaign, and he should use her more, in my opinion.  She is very attractive in person, friendly and appealing.  Mitt spoke forcefully about his plans for the economy, but there was definite disapproval in the room, though unspoken, when he began to criticize Rick Santorum yet again, with the same tired litany we have been hearing here for days. As Byron York said in a Washington Examiner piece just three hours after the meeting, “while Romney received enthusiastic applause for his policy proposals during the Troy speech, the room became considerably quieter when he began attacking Santorum.”

The man sitting next to me, a professor at Wayne State University, told me that he plans to vote for Santorum because he is so disgusted with Romney’s constant drumbeat of negative ads.  He said he contacted Romney’s campaign and told them so.  The woman on my other side has already absentee-voted for Romney.  I gave her a couple of things to consider (she said that Romney had never lied).  She also said that she likes him because he’s not an attorney.  She was surprised, I think, when I told her that he had a law degree from Harvard.  Ann Romney actually brought it up later when discussing her husband’s accomplishments!  Her friend, a man born in Great Britain, told me he came to America because of the freedom we have here, and he will fight to keep it.

* Ann McElhinney was the last speaker, a very entertaining and upbeat woman who was born in Ireland, but has lately moved to southern California.  Her most favorite things about the United States are dishwashers and cold beer!  Ann is a journalist and film producer; her current project is Frack Nation, a film that challenges the allegations made in the film Gas Land – that fracking for natural gas causes groundwater contamination, and that all citizens in the areas where fracking occur are against it.  To see more about this project, and to donate towards its production if you are interested (they’ll take as little as one dollar, and list you in the movie’s credits), go to www.fracknation.com. 

If you donate (I did) and they don’t meet their goal by the end of 60 days, your credit card will not be charged.  I believe that it is important that movies like this one get made, in order to counter the lies being told by “environmental groups”.  Here she is, being interviewed at CPAC:

Ann spoke passionately about the damage that groups such as Greenpeace and Sierra Club have done to local communities in their efforts to “save mother earth”.  She said that, in Romania, efforts of a Canadian company to open a gold mine were stymied by the efforts of Greenpeace, who lied about the mining operation, saying that they were stealing homes from the local people, when, in fact, the company was offering fair prices for their land, and building new homes for the displaced citizens.  She was a producer of a film about this subject, named “Mine Your Own Business”.  She also told us that the United States is the ONLY country in the entire world where an individual can own the mineral rights to their property.

Ann loves living in the United States and suggested that Michael Moore should move to Cuba, with his mother since their  health care system is superior to ours in his opinion.  She will gladly take his place as a citizen of the USA!

The entire forum was filmed by C-Span, and I think the candidates’ speeches are available for viewing.  The forum was covered by members of the media, including Byron York, who I spoke with in the lobby about the Michigan primary.  He will be around for the next couple of days covering events related to the primary election.

Hillsdale College students and faculty members were in attendance, mainly collecting signatures to place Clark Durant on the ballot as a senatorial candidate for the Republican Party.  They are trying to replace our current Senator, Debbie Stabenow.

During the lunch break, Michelle Malkin and Andrew Breitbart signed copies of their books, and Breitbart was around until the end of the conference.  I spoke with him briefly just before I left about the broadcasters chosen to televise the Republican debates.  He said it’s tough – they have to convince someone else to moderate the debates, since the questions are designed to make our candidates look ridiculous, and take the attention off  what the Republican candidates propose to do about the economy and unemployment.  He told me, and mentioned it in his speech also, that he watched very little of the debates.

All in all, this was an exciting and worthwhile event.  I think I will become a paying member of Michigan AFP, since they have been bringing a number of interesting and informative events to Michigan. 

NOTE:  I did take photos, but they didn’t come out very well, so I have substituted pics from other AFP events, where possible, or stock photos.  The Herman Cain photo is mine, so you can see why I didn’t use the rest!