last night i attended the kick off of the 2009 speaker series at radio city music hall in nyc. the debate began with ann coulter giving a 15 minute speech, followed by bill maher with a 15 minutes of his own. suprirsingly, there were more than just a handful of conservatives in the audience. and in new york city, that's a big deal.

all in all, a rather engaging 2 hours. for highlights on the debate, read politco's coverage or the ny times coverage of the event.