Beck to Hoffman Estates audience: 'We've had enough'

"November is coming."

That was the chant shouted over and over by the attendees of Saturday's RightNation2010 event in Hoffman Estates - a massive conservative convention aiming to unify sectors of the right in advance of the election.

American flags and T-shirts mocking Democratic politicians were in abundance as 5,416 ticketholders waited in line to enter the Sears Centre arena.

The convention began with a thundering video introduction imploring Midwesterners, in the words of former President Ronald Reagan, to "check and reverse the growth of government" and "reawaken this industrial giant to get government back within its means."

Facilitated by the United Republican Fund, RightNation was described by organizers as a joint venture of Republican, conservative, Libertarian, free market and tea party groups.

"Tonight is about like-minded people getting together to begin the process of taking back our government," said Cisco Cotto, the WLS-AM 890 talk show host who opened the event.

Fox news commentator and author Glenn Beck headlined the event, along with blogger and activist Andrew Breitbart, and tea party leader Herman Cain.

The event closely follows tea party primary victories on the East Coast, and of a heavily attended Beck rally in Washington, D.C.

According to organizers, this was Beck's first Chicago-area appearance.

He took the stage just after 9 p.m.

With his signature chalkboard in tow, Beck said Americans must write a new chapter, using the energy of the growing tea party movement.

He spoke of a recent newspaper headline following a tea party candidate's primary victory. It read simply, he said,

"Establishment Freaked."

Both the Democrat and Republican establishment should freak, Beck said.

"We've had enough. We're going to set things right. As the tea party finds itself in a position where it is the beginning of the end of the establishment, people like you, you find yourself at the end of the beginning. ... They must hear our message. An end to out of control spending. An end to the insanity. An end to government that is gobbling everything up."

Republican candidate for governor Bill Brady, was finalized as a speaker at the last minute.

Brady's campaign said he had originally been unable to attend the event because of a scheduling conflict, and was later this week listed as a "maybe."

At a campaign stop in Glen Ellyn Thursday, Brady described tea partyers as "the solution, not the problem."

"We have to take back our government and energize the free market system to bring back jobs - private sector jobs - to the state of Illinois," he told the crowd Saturday night. "To do that, we're going to root out the bureaucracy and the litigation to free this system up," he said.

Brady, a state senator since 2002, and a state representative from 1993 to 2001, called for an "end to career politicians," to applause.

Others top Illinois Republicans - including U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk and Illinois Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno - were absent.

Libertarian Senate candidate Mike Labno, of Oak Brook, said he hadn't been invited to attend, but decided to swing by anyway, to hand out campaign leaflets and introduce himself to potential voters.

Tickets cost $77 to $1,200 - with the priciest seats allowing backstage access and the opportunity to hobnob with speakers.

Reporters and photographers were asked to comply with a long list of rules - among them, photographing and videotaping Beck only in the first three minutes of his talk.

They were also asked not to interview or film crowd members without permission of the Right Nation 2010 press staff.

Attendees said - some who drove from out of state - deciding to come was a no-brainer.

Cathy Richmond and her husband, Wendell, of Glen Ellyn, laughed that it felt like "date night with Glenn Beck."

While Richmond said she's long considered herself a Republican, she spoke of a growing sense of anger about government spending and what she described as an unnecessary reach into citizens' personal lives.

Not everyone who came to the center embraced the convention's message.

A group of 150 protesters, organized by Chicago and suburban churches, were armed with signs decrying Beck and his "hateful" stances.

Breitbart got nose to nose with several of them, demanding they provide an example of the hate. Those exchanges became the subject of his speech.

Among those drawn into the shouting match was University Church pastor Gene Winkler, of Naperville.

Winkler said he objects to the "campaign of vilification" raged against Obama and Democrats and minorities, calling it racist.

Breitbart called the rally "AstroTurf" - a rally organized not by church leaders, but really by unions. "Go Andrew, go!" Breitbart fan and convention attendee Cynthia Handley, of Shorewood, said as she looked on.

"The country's more polarized than ever this election."

Enough: Brady attended, but Mark Kirk and Christine Radogno were absent