The American Spectator

He may be considered a lame duck by many and have anemic poll numbers, but when President Bush took the stage here at CPAC around 7:15 this morning, he received a rock star’s welcome. People began lining up to see him in the middle of the night. The audience interrupted his 40 minute address repeatedly with applause, on several occasions even breaking into chants of “four mor years.”

The speech itself was mostly boiler plate, and was pretty much an attempt to defend his conservative accomplishments. He talked about cutting taxes, fighting earmarks, reforming entitlements, stem cell research, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the War on Terror in general. Most of it we’ve heard before.

One thing that was slightly new was his early attempts at trying to rally the base around John McCain. Though he didn’t mention McCain by name, he said he looked forward to working with conservatives this year, said that Republicans would soon have a nominee who would “carry the conservative banner.”