Claremont Conservative Scoops The Forum

The CMC Forum reports that Mitt Romney will be the Res Publica speaker, just as I reported thirteen days ago. (That's called a scoop in the business, ladies and gentleman, and lest they get high and mighty and say that they were just checking their facts, let me just say that they also reported and then retracted that Michael Pollans, of Omnivore Dilemma mistaken fame, would be a speaker.)

I will also be seeing Governor Romney in my capacity as a research assistant with the Claremont Institute on December 5.

As you know, I hail from Massachusetts and I was, and remain, a huge Romney fan on the political campaign trail. I will most certainly be staying up all night and camping out, with air mattress in tow if need be, to get the head table for this event.

Unfortunately for me, though, I'm afraid Romney's political future is far from assured, as these latest polling figures mark the first time that the Governor's public opinion numbers have fallen below 50% with the GOP base.

What can account for his quick fall? In a word: RomneyCare, which unfortunately, is nearly indistinguishable from ObamaCare.

Paul Rahe on Soft Despotism

In January of this past year, I participated in a Winston Churchill conference at the Hotel de Coronado.

It was an entirely fantastic experience and we read such Churchill classics as My Early Life and Thoughts and Adventures in great detail. Over dinner, Rahe told me of his great respect for the Claremont Institute and the Claremont government department.

One of the professors guiding us in our reading at the Churchill conference was Dr. Paul Rahe. Over at Uncommon Knowledge, Dr. Rahe discusses the tyrannical impulses of our president and the administrative state, by making reference to the thought of Montesquieu and Tocqueville and the "soft depotism" that makes those invasions on our individual rights possible. "We are all in grips of the meddling impulse" indeed. It's well worth watching.

The Cost of Fareed Zakaria's Visit to the Athenaeum?

Was Zakaria Worth $75,000? Photo Courtesy of Claremontmckenna.edu

A friend writes in with this tidbit about the cost of bringing past Res Publica speaker, Fareed Zakaria, to our college earlier this semester.

Apparently, according to Harpers, the cost for one hour of Mr. Zakaria's time is $75,000, excluding the first class ticket, car service and hotel accommodations. Now to be fair, the figures were given in 2008, before the stock market crash and may or may not include the value of the book signing he did while on campus. I want to stress that I do not have the figures for his honorarium, but don't doubt that the college would lavish this kind of money easily.

According to one of the professors that brought him, Justice Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, spoke for an estimated $10,000. Bono, spoke for a little under one half hour, and received $100,000.

Now, I'm all for the laws of supply and demand -- there is after all, only one Fareed Zakaria -- but we are fools to value him that highly, especially when much of his remarks came straight from his columns, books, and television program and when we are suffering under the weight of tremendous budget cuts.