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Conservatives focused their sights on the upcoming midterm elections at this weekend’s Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Held in New Orleans, the three day gathering featured many prominent speakers from the ranks of the GOP who rallied against the policies of the Obama Administration while preaching the need for unity. Newt Gingrich appeared at the conference to assail the President as “the most radical in American history,” and the driving force behind a “secular socialist machine.” The question of the Tea Party and its role within the GOP was also addressed by various speakers. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum encouraged such conservative activists to run for office in Republican primaries. Haley Barbour, the chair of the Republican Governors Association, warned against the splintering of the Tea Party and the conservative vote into a potential third party, adding that such a thing would be disastrous for Republicans the November elections. And, of course, no major conservative event these days would be complete without Sarah Palin. On Saturday, the Former Alaska Governor rallied delegates in the main hall with cheeky pot shots at the President, met with fervent applause. Palin, in the words of former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts, positioned herself as ‘king maker,” and “probably not the king” in reference to any possible presidential run.

GUEST: Alexander Zaitchik, Freelance Journalist and Contributing Writer to Alternet, Author of the forthcoming book, “Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance

Read Alexander Zaitchik’s article here: http://www.alternet.org/news/146403/the_five_creepiest_moments_
of_the_southern_republican_leadership_conference