Page 2 - Generating Excitement News Today

Sarah maria, patrick, daniel, elizabeth, peter and john. [ applause ] of course the one that is not here with us but is home and recooperating just well and doing amazingly well thanks to your prayers, our little girl bella. [ applause ] i came here back in right after the 2008 election. i have been coming to a lot of cpac conventions. after that election, i made this statement. i said conservatism did not fail our country. conservatives failed conservaticonserv conservati conservatism. thats wh...

Conservative views. now, as jim said, getting a serious second look by a lot of people after the three wins this week, has had a cool and at ease demeanor. obviously, in front of a crowd that is behind him at least in terms of the kinds of issues he spoke so forcefully about. lets listen to rick santorum. >> its great to be here at cpac. i will not be telling any jokes. foster cornered the market on that. thanks for that wonderful reception for not just me but for most of my family that is here....

>> let me read what david burkes writes. if he werent running for president, he would be saying the same things he is today. few believe that about romney. he may win the republican nomination, but it wont be worth much. is the real problem here not that romney is conservative enough but people just dont like him? >> well, i think if you look at the polling, its not that bad for romney. romney doesnt generate a lot of antipathy among republicans or americans. not a lot of enthusiasm. >> negative...

States. someone who would simply give that issue away in the fall, give the issue away of government control of your health. who would be the better person to go after the obama administration on trying to control the energy and the manufacturing sector of our economy and trying to dictate to you what lights to turn on and what cars to drive? manmade global warming and imposed the first carbon cap in the state of massachusetts? the first state to do so in the country? >> no. >> would it be someo...

Media. if its a lukewarm response you know what the headlines are going to be tomorrow. >> i hope they spent, from their perspective, a lot of time on this speech. you can do a lot with a good speech, generating excitement. he has a tough anti-obama message. its not an intuitive appeal but he can succeed. >> chris, heres the problem. they want to win the movement. sometimes its not winning the election. the problem is romney is not one of them. hes never been one of

I dont need to tell you the hit on him was he didnt have the passion. he kept hearing from people, oh, if you knew the real al gore, hes a funny, charming guy. a lot of the same stuff we hear from romney. can you change who a person is? can you try to push them to be different in their public persona? >> i think its hard. its very hard given the amount of exposure presidential candidates get. people feel they get a window of these people and they do. the problem with the romney campaign is mitt ...

Demographics are similar to pennsylvania, his home state. >> do you think this is the situation where this is one of those sort of critical moments where they are going to say okay, if he gives a great speech, hes our guy? you know, lets see what we can do to margin liz gingrich more? essentially take that core conservative vote and critically its money and throw it behind one person. >> life is about seizing the moment. its about being prepared when you have the rare opportunity to get a great ...

That election. thats why we won. we always talked about how we are going to get the moderates. why would an undecided voter vote for a candidate who the party is not excited about? [ applause ] we need conservatives now to rally for a conservative, to go into november to excite the conservative base, to pull with that excitement moderate voters and defeat barack obama in the fall. [ applause ]ç i just say this in close, when i restarted our speech, i referred to where our rights came from, its...

Romney. you gave $331,000. why the switch? >> well, its so obvious that rick matured into a message america is resinating. he believes we are in this together. its not just jobs but the spiritual dimension of jobs. we enjoy the rewards of contributing to society. its beyond the money we make. its important to get everybody back to work for those reasons. >>ç its interesting -- its interesting he didnt talk a lot about that. i think the general election problem for rick santorum is that those v...

There are a limited number of them, but they are committed. i dont think the straw polls predict anything about the republican nomination process. >> a lot of this has been about how, you know, flee of what you can be. a criticism of romney is he has a great game plan and isnt able to adjust along the way. this is a small adjustment, but would you expect santorum to work the presidents decision into this speech? >> absolutely. this is the perfect opportunity for romney, quite frankly to speak to...