Conservative Girl Adventure - Smart Girl Summit Day One

Today was the day one of Smart Girl Summit.  The weather is horrible in DC today, pouring down rain all the live long day.  I had decided to take the metro to the hotel due to the horrible traffic.  While I was waiting in line to put money on metro card, I noticed a sign that said they would be opening the metro system an hour early for the "events" in town on Saturday.  What event would that be; the socialist love fest that is the left's answer to Beck's Restore Honor Rally.  They didn't open it early for the Beck rally.  So that got me to thinking about who made the arrangements to get the done. 

I finally arrive at the hotel and get registered for the conference.  I missed a part of the first presentation given by Anita MonCrief on voter fraud.  She is a very good public speaker, if you ever get the chance to see her, please take the opportunity.  She has taken on Acorn's dishonest tactics at great personal risk to herself.  She told me today that she has had to move three times since she came forward.  But, she also said that this has transformed her life and she and her daughter are much happier, and her life has greatly improved. 

Liz Cheney was the lunchtime speaker.  She is another very good public speaker.  She told some heartwarming stories about her parents.  One was about when she was on the campaign trail for the Bush re-election campaign in 04 and her daughter who was about 7 at the time asked why some people were only waving to the bus with one finger.  Which I thought was very funny.  She also said her dad is doing much better and is on the mend and will be returning to regular schedule in a month or so.  She and her dad are writing a book about his public service and due to his illness it will be delayed and will not be released until mid to late next year.  She gave a few good quotes:

President Obama says don't  give the republican back the keys to car, but come November his driving privileges will be greatly curtailed. 

Many of the afternoon speakers were talking about pro life issues.  This is a topic that I am not as passionate about as some other conservatives.  But, I did enjoy the speakers.  They are very impassioned woman on this topic, and give very good arguments of why abortion needs to be curtailed in this country. 

Michele Bachmann was the dinner keynote speaker.  As usual, she gave a great speech that really got the crowd going.  If you have never seen her speak live, take the opportunity if it arises for you.  One of the advantages of living in DC is that we do get many politico's speaking at our local tea parties.  She is first on the list as a crowd favorite.  Sadly, due to bad weather she was late in arriving and was unable to finish her speech because she had to get to the airport. 

The real highlight of the day for me was the viewing of the documentary Fire in the Heartland.  A perfect end of the Smart Girl day.  The movie is amazing and will really get any tea party woman in the mood to stand up and get out there.  It covers the "Mama Grizzlies" and you hear some very poignant stories from strong conservative women.  I think the story that really stuck out for me was Michele Bachmann talking about her mom.  Her parents divorced when she was about 12.  She was a stay at home mom and had to go and get a job to support her kids (I think she said four) and had it very rough.  Michele would go out and find babysitting jobs in order to help with buy her clothes and necessities as her mom couldn't afford them.  She would save half of the money and finally after three years she finally saved up enough money to buy herself some contact lenses.  One her first day wearing them she was on her bike and one fell out on a dirt road.  She went home in tears because it three years worth of work to save them money was down the tubes.  Her mother took her out and got down and her hands and knees until she found it for her.  They were able to save the lens.  Her point of telling this story was to make people understand the difference of how we are raising our kids today.  Many of our children have a 'me' mentality.  Having our children work for things is positive.  It teaches them the value of a dollar and of the rewards of hard work.  I highly recommend that you order the movie.  It will be a big hit with all tea partying "Smart Girls" and I think a few Smart Boys will enjoy it as well.

I would just like to say that both Stacy and Teri did an awesome job of putting together this summit.  They of course didn't do it alone, but this is their baby and deserve a great deal of credit.