2010 Conference Information

To pursue our educational purpose and for the inspiration of our members, The Steamboat Institute held its Second Annual Freedom Conference on August 27 and 28, 2010 at the Steamboat Grand Resort in beautiful Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

user_comment_ModSpeakers included:

  • Karl Rove, served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2000–2007 and Deputy Chief of Staff from 2004–2007. At the White House he oversaw the Offices of Strategic Initiatives, Political Affairs, Public Liaison, and Intergovernmental Affairs and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, coordinating the White House policy-making process.  Before Karl became known as “The Architect” of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns, he was president of Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked for Republican candidates, non-partisan causes, and non-profit groups. His clients included over 75 Republican U.S. Senate, Congressional, and gubernatorial candidates in 24 states, as well as the Moderate Party of Sweden.  Karl writes a weekly op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, is a Newsweek columnist, and is the author of the newly released New York Times Bestseller, “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight.”
  • Tony Blankley, co-host of  the Left, Right and Center radio program, (distributed to public radio station nationwide by public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica) columnist, executive vice president of Edelman Worldwide public relations, television political commentator, and former GOP spokesman.  For seven years, Tony Blankley served as press secretary to then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich. In that role, Tony Blankley not only helped create messages which shook the country, Tony Blankley also helped create policy. Tony Blankley’s knack for appetizing soundbites (which Tony Blankley calls his “poor-man’s poetry”) and sound political strategy made Tony Blankley one of Washington’s premiere sources of ideas and insights.  Working for the most renowned Speaker in decades, Blankley became one of the leading spokesmen for the Contract with America. Prior to Tony Blankley’s career on Capitol Hill, Blankley served President Reagan as a speechwriter and senior policy analyst.  The same depth of knowledge and sharp wit that kept reporters turning to Tony Blankley during his time on Capitol Hill have made Blankley one of today’s leading media commentators. Tony Blankley’s opinions and analysis of political events have been featured on the front pages of The New York Times, USA Today, and other major publications, and Tony Blankley was a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
  • Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a new social entrepreneur and the Founder of Liberty Central, Inc.  Ginni finds the new citizen activists inspirational! She brings passion, enthusiasm and principled participation to the public square. With 30 years of experience within the Washington beltway working alongside esteemed politicians like Dick Armey and for institutions like Hillsdale College, the Heritage Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Ginni is committed to serving as a clearinghouse for new and more effective activism.  She also enjoys motor homing with her husband, Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas.
  • Sharron Angle, Candidate for U.S. Senate from Nevada.
  • Yaron Brook, President and Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and a contributing editor of The Objective Standard. A former finance professor, he has been published in academic as well as popular publications, and his opinion-editorials appear in major newspapers. He is frequently interviewed on national TV and radio. Dr. Brook lectures on Objectivism, business ethics and foreign policy at college campuses, community groups and corporations across America and throughout the world.  Ayn Rand is the author of several books, including the landmark novel, Atlas Shrugged, which in a survey by the Library of Congress was rated as the second most influential book in print, second only to the Bible.
    Come to the Freedom Conference and you will find out, “Who is John Galt?”
  • Dan Mitchell, Senior Fellow, The Cato Institute.  Daniel J. Mitchell is a top expert on tax reform and supply-side tax policy. Mitchell is a strong advocate of a flat tax and international tax competition. Prior to joining Cato, Mitchell was a senior fellow with The Heritage Foundation, and an economist for Senator Bob Packwood and the Senate Finance Committee. He also served on the 1988 Bush/Quayle transition team and was Director of Tax and Budget Policy for Citizens for a Sound Economy. His articles can be found in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, and Washington Times. He is a frequent guest on radio and television and a popular speaker on the lecture circuit. Mitchell holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University.
  • Peter Brookes,  Senior Fellow for National Security Affairs and the Chung-Ju Yung Fellow for Policy Studies with the Heritage Foundation. Peter Brookes develops and communicates The Heritage Foundation’s stance on foreign policy and national security affairs through media appearances, research, published articles, congressional testimony and speaking engagements.He is also in his second term as a congressionally-appointed member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and served on the advisory committee of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism in 2008. Brookes is also an Adjunct Professor at the National Defense University .
  • Jason Mattera, is a New York Times bestselling author and at 26, the youngest editor of a national periodical, Human Events. In 2010,Mattera’s debut book, OBAMA ZOMBIES: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation (Threshold Editions) landed at #14 on the New York Times bestseller list. Rush Limbaugh, who endorsed the book twice on air, dubbed Mattera an official “Rush baby” and nominated Mattera for a Pulitzer Prize. (No word yet from the Pulitzer committee on the status of Rush’s nomination.) Mattera has appeared on virtually every major talk radio and television program, including: The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, Fox & Friends, Imus, Washington Journal, the Laura Ingraham Show, Mark Levin Show, Mancow, Neal Boortz and scores more. Well-known for his trademark “ambush interviews,” Mattera’s video takedowns of top liberals have gone viral and have become internet legends.
  • Christopher Horner, serves as a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. a public interest organization dedicated to advancing limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty. He has written on numerous topics in publications ranging from law reviews to legal and industrial trade journals to print and online opinion pages, and is the author of best-selling books:
    Power Grab: How Obama’s Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America
     Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud and Deception to Keep You Misinformed
    The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism
    Greenpeace has named Mr. Horner in its “A Field Guide to Climate Criminals.”
  • Kellyanne Conway, is Founder and President of the polling company™, inc./WomanTrend a privately-held, woman-owned corporation founded in 1995.  The firm is headquartered in Washington, DC and maintains an office in New York City.
    Kellyanne is one of the most quoted and noted pollsters on the national scene, having provided commentary on over 1,200 television shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, HBO, Comedy Central, MTV and the Fox News Channel, and numerous radio shows and print stories.
  • Grover Norquist, is president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a coalition of taxpayer groups, individuals and businesses opposed to higher taxes at both the federal, state and local levels.  He founded ATR in 1985 at President Reagan’s request.  ATR organizes the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which asks all candidates for federal and state office to commit themselves in writing to oppose all tax increases.  Norguist chairs the “Wednesday Meeting”, a weekly gathering of more than 120 elected officials, political activists, and movement leaders.  He serves on the board of directors of the American Conservative Union and the National Rifle Association.  The Wall Street Journal has called Norquist “the Grand Central Station” of the conservative movement.
  • Robert Goldberg, PhD, is co-founder and vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. (CMPI) Along with Peter Pitts, Dr. Goldberg hosts the popular and controversial blog on the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare, www.drugwonks.com.  Prior to founding CMPI, Goldberg was Director of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Medical Progress and Chairman of its 21st Century FDA Task Force which examined the impact of the FDA’s Critical Path Initiative on drug development and personalized medicine.  He has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, National Review Online, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Sun and writes regularly for The Washington Times, the New York Post and The Weekly Standard.  He is an expert on Medicare reform, comparative effectiveness and FDA’s Critical Path Initiative. He is author, with Peter Pitts of “Keeping Medicine Personal: A Critical Path for Comparative Effectiveness,” a recent CMPI white paper, The Impact of Medicare’s Anemia Drug Coverage Decision On Cancer Patients: Comparative Effectiveness vs. Patient Centered-Care, Insta-Americans: The Empowered (and Imperiled) Health Care Consumer in the Age of Internet Medicine, and with John Vernon, “Alzheimer’s Disease and Cost-effectiveness Analyses: Ensuring Good Value for Money?”
  • Michael D. Tanner, heads research into a variety of domestic policies with a particular emphasis on health care reform, social welfare policy, and Social Security. His most recent book, Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution(2007), chronicles the demise of the Republican party as it has shifted away from its limited government roots and warns that reform is necessary to avoid continual electoral defeat. Under Tanner’s direction, Cato launched the Project on Social Security Choice, which is widely considered the leading impetus for transforming the soon-to-be-bankrupt system into a private savings program. Time Magazine calls Tanner, “one of the architects of the private accounts movement,” and Congressional Quarterly named him one of the nation’s five most influential experts on Social Security.
  • Dr. Kelly Victory, MD, is a residency-trained, board-certified trauma and emergency specialist with over 15 years of clinical experience. She served as the Chief Medical Officer for Whole Health Management for more than 5 years before leading their new Health & Wellness Division, Live Whole Health. During that time, she led the medical team of over 800 health professionals in the delivery of on-site health and wellness services. She developed innovative health risk and disease management programs that generated superior clinical outcomes.
  • Clifford May, is the President of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism created immediately following the 9/11 attacks on the United States.  He is also the Chairman of the Policy Committee of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), an international, non-partisan organization based in Washington D.C. comprised of leading members of the national security community. The Daily Telegraph (U.K.) named May one of the “100 most influential conservatives in America” this year (as well as in its earlier tally).  Mr. May has had a long and distinguished career in international relations, journalism, communications and politics.
  • Claudia Rosett, Journalist in Residence of Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board.  Claudia Rosett writes on international affairs, drawing on 27 years experience as a journalist and editor, reporting from Asia, the former Soviet Union, Latin America and the Middle East. Currently based in New York, she writes a weekly column on foreign policy forForbes.com;  has contributed to a wide range of publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer,  USA Today, Commentary, The New Republic and The Weekly Standard; and makes frequent guest appearances on TV and radio.
  • French Hill, Chairman and CEO of Delta Trust and Banking Corp.  From May 1989 through January 1993, Mr. Hill was a senior economic policy official in the George H. W. Bush Administration on the staff of the White House and as deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury.
  • Brian Ivers, Master Sergeant, United States Marine Corps
  • Jennifer Schubert-Akin, Chairman, The Steamboat Institute


    • July 4-17 web

    Schedule of Events

    Second Annual Freedom Conference August 27-28, 2010,

    The Steamboat Grand

    Lodging, Maps & Info