Fiorina and Walker the "winners?"

Hugh Hewitt writes in his column in the Washington Examiner about last week's Western Conservative Summit held here in Colorado.

...All of the GOP would-be nominees at the gathering — Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and Scott Walker — received warm welcomes, but hallway chatter clearly pointed to Fiorina and Walker as "winners," as Fiorina again proved the ability to convert previously uncommitted activists and Walker proved adept at confirming incipient commitments to himself. Dr. Carson gave a rousing speech as well, but the attendees buzzed the most about Carly, and the "we must nominate a winner" chatter tilted heavily to the Wisconsin governor.

Read more here.

Defending Rudy Guiliani's remarks

Michael D. Brown is a former Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Now he has a talk show on Denver radio station KHOW. Like Rudy Guiliani, Brown has received a torrent of criticism from the left for writing these words on his Facebook page:

The lens of history will show Barack Obama told us, through words and deeds, how he would fundamentally transform the United States. But until Rudy Giuliani spoke up Republicans were generally scared to say what they knew in their hearts was true. We are not a nation of socialists, fascists, communists, statists, appeasers, cowards, racists. We are a nation that believes in the supremacy of the individual, self-sufficiency, limited government, free markets.

Like Guiliani, Brown is at a liberating point in his career. Both can raise questions and say what they think without concern for political correctness, and without the "timidity of politicians who claim to believe in American exceptionalism empower Obama and his followers when they fear to speak the truth because of political correctness."

On the other hand, there are politicians such as John McCain, who says he is ashamed of his country, and Rand Paul, who says we can't question the motivations of our president. Brown says Jeb Bush is another one who fears the media making him to look like a politically incorrect boob. Scott Walker cleverly said, "I don't know, ask Obama!"

Brown warns us that the day we can't question the motives of an elected official is the day America has been "fundamentally transformed."