John Bolton at CPAC

I’m at the Omni Shoreham hotel today for the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference, where the tone was set by former United Nation Ambassador’s slashing speech on the theme of whether the Obama administration would weaken America. The answer (spoiler alert): yes!

“For those who felt an Obama administration would be friendly to Israel,” said Bolton, “it’s wake-up time.”

Bolton’s speech was rather heavy on partisan politics. He asked a pack room to work to elect Republicans in special elections and 2010, something possible because “this is still a center-right country” and “the Democrats misinterpreted the vote that they got.”

And Bolton was overjoyed to be untethered from the Bush administration. Conservatives were stronger now, he said, because they didn’t have to defend George W. Bush. “Too many people identified the Bush administration with conservatism,” said Bolton. “I think that’s far from being accurate.”