The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Now Imagine If Hunter S. Thompson Was On Twitter . . .’

Posted on | July 2, 2010 | 24 Comments

@rsmccain — Robert Stacy McCain has aptly been described as “the conservative Hunter S. Thompson.” Now imagine if Hunter Thompson was on Twitter!
— Matt Lewis, “The Top 25 Conservatives on Twitter”

About time I got this kind of recognition, considering that we’re now just three weeks away from the 2010 Right Online Conference in Las Vegas.

I took a fast right on Russell, then a left onto Maryland Parkway . . . and suddenly I was cruising in warm anonymity past the campus of the University of Las Vegas . . .  no tension on these faces; I stopped at a red light and got lost, for a moment, in a sunburts of flesh in the cross-walk: fine sinewy thighs, pink mini-skirts, ripe young nipples, sleeveless blouses, long sweeps of blond hair, pink lips and blue eyes — all the hallmarks of a dangerously innocent culture.
I was tempted to pull over and start mumbling obscene entreaties: “Hey, Sweetie, let’s you and me get weird. Jump into this hotdog Caddy and we’ll flash over to my suite at the Flamingo, load up on ether and behave like wild animals in my private, kidney-shaped pool . . . .”
Sure we will, I thought. But by this time I was far down the parkway, easing into the turn lane for a left at Flamingo Road. . . .
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The list of speakers for this year’s conference includes Erick Erickson and Ed Morrissey — both of whom are far more interesting than me, which is why they’re on the list and that bastard Erik Telford didn’t invite me, just like he snubbed me last year.

Obviously, Telford fails to take me seriously. After I spared him the long-promised ass-whupping at the Pittsburgh conference, he mistook mercy for weakness. 

Telford probably thought I’d forget his promise to put me on the agenda for this year’s Right Online conference at the posh Venetian Resort Hotel (where they’re offering rooms at the discount rate of  $169 a night.)

“It’s Vegas,” Telford thought to himself. “Surely that redneck loser can’t make it all the way to Vegas.”

Telford obviously didn’t believe that, for the second year in a row, I’d be able to rattle the tip-jar and scare up enough cash for this trip.

Three weeks. Twenty-one days.

If we could average $100 a day until then . . . But that would be crazy.

Wouldn’t it?

RIGHT ONLINE
LAS VEGAS, JULY 23-25

Category: Blame Erik Telford, Blogging, Nevada, Right Online, Shoe Leather Fund

Comments

24 Responses to “‘Now Imagine If Hunter S. Thompson Was On Twitter . . .’”

  1. Dan Collins
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 4:51 pm

    Now imagine Hunter Thompson were on drugs . . .

  2. Brian O'Connor
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 5:00 pm

    Congratz on making the top 25. Be sure to set aside bail money for Las Vegas, just in case.

  3. Thrasymachus
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 6:07 pm

    HST wasn’t on Twitter but his collected letters are published. The prose style of his work is a lot different- it sounds like off-the-cuff, dark existential musings but only because he carefully crafted it that way. He was never really a deadline reporter and shouldn’t be thought of that way. Is there any really great spontaneous writing? Maybe some such star will appear, but I doubt it.

  4. jefferson101
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 6:13 pm

    Dude!

    Only one problem there. A responsible Adult, and particularly one who is an active Parent cannot be Hunter S. Thompson.

    I admire the man’s way with words, too. But let us not confuse his way with words and his way of getting into the proper mood to use them, or to experience the things he would later write about.

    Gonzo Journalism is a wonderful thing, and I hope you can re-define it, but don’t emulate the originator too much.

    It’s too hard on your system, completely apart from anything else.

  5. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas II « The Camp Of The Saints
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 6:25 pm

    […] two times, the Rightosphere’s top gonzo reporter, Stacy McCain, hasn’t been invited, but not receiving an invitation means nothing to a true gonzo.  He wants to go, but he needs out help: [Erik] Telford probably thought I’d forget his promise […]

  6. Bob Belvedere
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 6:31 pm

    1) Stacy, I hope you don’t mind but I altered the drawing of Hunter slightly.

    2) Jefferson101: He already has redefined it.

  7. Bob Belvedere
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 6:32 pm

    There’s a reason they call me ‘Shameless Bob’.

  8. jefferson101
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 6:59 pm

    @Bob Belvedere,#6:

    Only halfway, until the first un-Co-Authored bestseller. I’m down with that, and I want to stake my claim for a signed First Edition copy.

    But until then? Progress is being made, but we’re not quite there yet, at least out here amongst us proles.

  9. Steve in TN
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 8:48 pm

    For cryin’ out loud…

  10. Bob Belvedere
    July 2nd, 2010 @ 11:25 pm

    Jefferson101: Why won’t people let me brown nose in peace!

  11. Estragon
    July 3rd, 2010 @ 1:34 am

    This and CPAC seem both more like fund-raising events than anything truly productive. The idea of going somewhere and paying a hotel bill and meals to hear a speech live which could just as easily be streamed over the internet seems rather Old School – especially for the “Right Online” group.

    Unless everyone just goes for the vacation, free liquor, and better looking hookers, in which case NEVER MIND.

  12. jefferson101
    July 3rd, 2010 @ 9:51 pm

    @Bob Belvedere, #10….

    Sorry, Dude.

    I don’t have a blog, so I can be as caustic as I want to.

    Not that I don’t want Stacy to be successful, or anything like that. However, I’m not one to concede the mantle of whatever to anyone until History has the chance to judge.

    Talk to me in another 20 years, assuming that the ATF hasn’t kicked my door in and shot me by then.

    I’m still not quite sure that Hunter Thompson deserves the mantle of a couple of his predecessors, for that matter. I’m a trogloconservative cynic, so I’m still fairly attached to H. L. Menckin. And The Lord only knows what he actually did, because he didn’t publicize anything except the cynicism.

    I’m ready for the next one, of either one. Both would be perhaps too much to hope for, at one time.

  13. Everybody Have Fun at Right Online! : The Other McCain
    July 19th, 2010 @ 8:10 pm

    […] experts from across the country” – a list from which my name is omitted. As I explained three weeks ago:The list of speakers for this year’s conference includes Erick Erickson and Ed Morrissey — both […]