You have to wonder how a man can be "on" so long and never lose his energy or enthusiasm.  Thursday evening, radio personality Mark Davis spoke at the meeting of the Summit Club, Flower Mound's oldest service club.  He had started the workday with his own show on WBAP with a focus on the political rally opposing Obamacare in Washington.  Next he next played guest host for Rush Limbaugh, addressing a national audience on some of the same topics, but having to shift the focus when the tragic events in Fort Hood began unfolding.  Afterwards, he had been an on-air radio guest of his friend Sean Hannity and another radio show.   

     Now, more than 12 hours after the start of a very busy day, he was pressing the flesh with members and club guests in the cozy environs of Majesty’s Restaurant in Flower Mound’s Parker Square, delivering an emotion-packed speech and enthralling friends and strangers in one-on-one conversations. His speech and his talk was packed with information, insight and inside news garnered from interviews with leaders and attendance at historic political events. He speaks from deep knowledge about current events and shows scholarly mastery on the history of the U.S. space program, but he's also interested in how his neighbor's children are faring in football and cheerleading. It's easy to overstate the power of national conservative radio, according to Davis, pointing to the election of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and the fact that United States hasn't implemented the flat tax.  He poked fun at calls for more balance in talk radio.  "Talk radio doesn't need balance," Davis opined, "it is balance." He discussed how left leaning university faculty, television and Hollywood have their access to the marketplace of ideas.  About 70 percent conservative, political talk radio provides an intimate outlet for opinions not vetted by the more liberal mainstream media, he said.   

     A genuinely nice man, who seems to relish interaction with anyone in his field of view, Davis cheerfully mixes it up in political discussions with those who have less conservative viewpoints in person or on the air. He told Summit Club members that callers ready to challenge his views move to the front of the line on his call-in show. Though political talk show hosts are mostly conservative, Davis said their audience is a roughly 50-50 mix and it's important to be polite. Among the more illuminating of Davis' talking points Sunday were observations from Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He spoke about the 2004 convention where Senate candidate Barack Obama wowed him and the audience with a speech that at least suggested he was presidential timber. He talked about how Sarah Palin's proud conservatism highlighted the 2008 Republican National Convention.  Davis did not predict her as the 2012 nominee, but said the party desperately needs the passion and vision she could bring to the ticket. He suggested it would be great to have a candidate of similar emotional appeal who could answer a tough question from Katie Couric.