Senator McCain has arrived at CPAC, preceded by a wave of several hundred supporters. Like everything at CPAC, the McCain delegation seems to be more than half college students. Notwithstanding the well-coordinated flood of young people, there were a number of more recognizable faces mixed into the crowd: they included David Brooks, former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, and Bob Novak. I hear that Lindsey Graham was there as well, but I didn’t see him. And just as Romney’s supporters lined up to swarm the auditorium when he made his concession speech, the McCain supporters have formed a line a few hundred strong to try to get in to listen in person. They’ll be out of luck; the room is more or less full. And on the inside, CPAC organizers were gathering up Romney signs and noisemakers and tossing them in the trash. What signal is sent by the entry en masse of McCain’s backers to CPAC? Is it more ‘we are legion,’ or ‘we’re new to the cause?’ Either way, Elvis has entered the building.
