Well, the afternoon festivities have wrapped-up here at the Values Voter Summit, and it was certainly an eventful end to the day.
Michael Medved, the first speaker on the after-lunch program, devoted his remarks to the selection of Sarah Palin as the GOP's VP nominee, saying that she dispelled three key myths about religious conservatives:
1. "Values Conservatives hate women and women hate them" (Specifically, he noted that women are actually more likely than men to be pro-life)
2. "Conservatives hate sex." (He called the Palin and McCain families, who have 12 children between them, "pretty dramatic evidence" that this is not the case.)
3. "Conservatives are depressed, defeated, and divided."
Stephen Baldwin, brother of Alec , Daniel, and William, talked about his conversion to Evangelical Christianity and slammed Hollywood's marketing of smut to teens. In particular, he railed against the CW's "Gossip Girl", which actually uses negative reviews (example: "A parent's worst nightmare") in magazine ads aimed at drawing young viewers.
The attendees then heard from the Rt. Rev. Martin Minns, a bishop in the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), which recently broke from the Episcopal Church. He lamented the demise of traditional morality among the Episcopalians, but reported that CANA (which is more orthodox) is rapidly expanding despite the many lawsuits brought against it by the mainline Episcopalians.
A media panel heaped criticism on the mainstream press. Talk show-host Roger Hedgecock said that the MSM is "in a panic" over Sarah Palin, referring to the barrage of anti-Palin stories as "arrogance", "stupidity", and "tripe". Kate O'Beirne of the National review Institute also harangued the media trashing of Palin, reciting a litany of overly negative quotes from major media personalities and false stories that have been reported in major outlets. She went on to say that Palin "disrupts the media's planned coronation for Barack Obama" and threatens "the feminists and the men who fear them". National Review Editor Ramesh Ponuru broadened the discussion to include media bias on other issues, criticizing the fact the news outlets willingly adopt terms coined by the left ("assault weapons") but never accepting terms used on the right.
Ken Blackwell devoted much of his speech to school choice, which he compared to the struggle for racially integrated schools. He even went so far as to say that, "we must liberate these children from the 21st Century reservations and plantations" of the public school system.
Jonathan Falwell channeled Mark Twain, declaring that rumors of the Religious Right's death are premature, and Star Parker closed the evening with a rousing speech on traditional values and conservative principles. She asserted the "redistribution of wealth is a violation of Scripture," and that "Socialism is covetousness", but will probably be best remembered here for the best Sarah Palin reference of the night… she interrupted the first sentence of her speech in order to apply a coat of lipstick.
Townhall's Adam Brickley contributed to this post.