Owen Reports From the Front at Lake Geneva

Owen Robinson did the time at the Wisconsin Pubbie convention and has a couple of grafs which are loaded:

There was a LOT of cynicism and distrust in the people. Senator Fitzgerald and Speaker Huebsch gave good speeches talking about upholding conservative values, controlling spending, shrinking government, etc., but they just don’t have the trust of the party faithful anymore. I saw a lot of crossed arms, rolling eyes, and whispered comments. It’s going to take more than good rhetoric to earn back the trust of the Republican base.

...The audience reaction to Tommy was interesting. Beyond the manufactured reactions, it was pretty tepid. A lot of Tommy’s applause lines only drew scattered clapping. It was a lot more subdues than it was last year when the delegates were very energetic in cheering for Tommy.

(Tommy's wife's reaction to his run was all I needed to see--along the lines of 'it's what he really wants to do...')

It’s revealing that it is generally the more conservative elected Republicans who are around the most. I suspect that there are a lot of elected Republicans who consider a mass meeting of the GOP base to be a hostile environment.

Unfortunately, Owen did not give us the answer to the burning question: "Can Gunderson actually SING???"