Mitch McConnell’s main theme: do what’s right not popular. “Don’t confuse what’s popular with what’s right. If our conservative principles are universal they are right for all people at all time.”

(He had a great line about how hard it was during the Bush administration to focus anyone’s attention on how campaign finance reform would hurt free speech—“It was like trying to get a deaf dog off a meat truck!”)

That he said is the great lesson of the Obamacare fight:

“When we started this fight the President’s vision of reform had the support of 70 percent of the people. But we didn’t swear an oath to uphold whatever was popular, we swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. Nobody in Washington has the right to force anyone to buy something against their will... We’ll keep fighting in House, Senate, in the courts and in different forum until Obamacare goes the way of Hillarycare!

Democrats say they want to put this issue behind them I assure them it’s still very much ahead of them.

Let’s see if we can get a waiver for everybody in the United States! What’s not good for the union buddies is not good for you either. “

They know this bill is a disaster that’s why they are handing out waivers to their union buddies...

The Senate Minority Leader repeatedly called for us to stand on principle. What are our principles?

McConnell put it this way:

“So when the whole world running the opposite direction, we stood firm. We stood for imited government and we stand for freedom. We stand for strong defense and we stand for traditional values. And most certainly we stand for American exceptionalism. We insist the constitution means what it says.”

In an allusion to the internal debate he said, “Our movement is greater than any individual matter. If we stick together—we will continue to change the conversation in Washington.”

Grades

On Life: D
On Marriage: D
On Social Conservatism: D+

I like the speech and I like the man. But he didn’t speak to our issues at all.