Hannan’s visit was planned, but the timing couldn’t have been better, according to Lori Roman, President of Regular Folks United, which was the primary sponsor of his visit. In addition to his Army and Navy Club address, Hannan taped a number of national radio and TV shows, and gave other presentations in Washington, D.C. and New York. All of them centered around the meaning of the town hall protests in terms of the health care debate and in terms of a larger quest for freedom.
“I feel grateful. I feel like he did a great service to our country this week. Through all the TV and radio he did, he reached a lot of people,” said Roman. “He doesn’t have any constituents here. It’s not like he is campaigning.”
According to Roman, he was able to strike the hearts of advocates who had heard the case against health care many times before. That’s because finding a foreigner who cares about the U.S. as much as he does is so rare.
“He was completely embraced by people everywhere he went. Physically, actively embraced, standing ovations everywhere he spoke,” she said.
In addition to his position as MEP, Hannan writes for Britian’s Daily Telegraph, making him a highly visible advocate for conservative principles across the pond. But his most public claim to fame is still his video that served the sharp verbal lashing to England’s highest office.
Hannan isn’t even clear as to why this particular video became a hit.
“I don’t know why this one took off so much, accept that its about the same length as a pop video which is maybe not a coincidence,” he said. “Under the roof of European parliament you typically get about two or three minutes, and plus [Brown] was there.”
His rise to stardom coincided with the rise in popularity of the original tea parties; both the tea parties and the popularity of his video probably played off each other. For now, though, Hannan is concentrating on the ideas, saying that active protests that center around real solutions are better than scathing criticism.
“When John Paul II was bringing down communism he didn’t want to attack the government of Poland or the Soviet Union,” said Hannan. “He just fought for something better instead.”