After last night’s electoral upheaval, I think it’s finally time to
state the obvious: everyone who speaks at a John Locke Foundation
anniversary dinner is jinxed.
Virginia Sen. George Allen, considered a strong presidential prospect as recently as earlier this year, spoke for us at last year’s dinner. Look what happened to him yesterday.
In 2004 Colorado’s Bill Owens, once “America’s Best Governor” as
proclaimed by some conservative publications, sees his career plummet after speaking at the 14th anniversary dinner.
In 2003 The Weekly Standard‘s Fred Barnes was our keynote speaker,
and the year before that it was the same publication’s Bill Kristol.
Yesterday’s results were a repudiation of their “big government
conservatism” and advocacy for the War in Iraq.
It’s a jinx, I tell ya.
