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Romney vows 'new conservative era' if elected
Mitt Romney aggressively defended his conservative record Friday, insisting he's the man who can unite Republicans and defeat President Barack Obama in the "battle for the soul of America."
"This country we love is in jeopardy," Romney told a crowd of thousands at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting in Washington.
"I am convinced that if we do our job, if we lead with conviction and integrity, that history will record the Obama presidency as the last gasp of liberalism's great failure and a turning point for a new conservative era."
The upcoming November election, he said, "really is a battle for the soul of America."
Romney's campaign to be nominated the party's 2012 standard-bearer to challenge Obama has been rattled by concern he cannot close the deal with the ultra-conservatives. He lost three nominating contests this week to surging religious conservative Rick Santorum.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, sought to put aside once and for all the lingering doubts about his credentials, saying "I was a severely conservative Republican governor."
He said he cut taxes extensively, balanced the budget, established a $2 billion rainy-day fund and slashed costly government programs.
Romney has been accused of being a flip-flopper on core social conservative issues such as abortion, but on Friday he asserted: "My presidency will be a pro-life presidency."
He vowed to end US funding to the UN Population Fund, "which supports China's barbaric one child policy," and "reverse every single Obama regulation that attacks our religious liberty and threatens innocent life."
Romney pledged to slash runaway government spending, "and without raising taxes or sacrificing America's military superiority, I will finally balance the budget."
He also refused to shy away from his own status as a multi-millionaire businessman and investor, a quality that may not sit well with some Americans who have been struggling during the economic downturn.
"I'm not ashamed to say I was successful," he said to a standing ovation.
It was a rousing return to CPAC for Romney, who dropped out of the 2008 race for the Republican nomination at that year's CPAC gathering after failing in a bid to rally conservatives against Senator John McCain.
Four years later Romney finds himself the confident if bruised frontrunner, and has the endorsements of several establishment Republicans, including McCain -- although he has lacked conservative backing.
Santorum recalled that failed 2008 Republican bid in his own CPAC speech, saying the candidates listened to advisors who urged them to "abandon our principles to get things done, to win."
Santorum has been derided by critics as too socially conservative to beat Obama in November, but the former senator from Pennsylvania doubled down on his far right positions.
"The lesson we've learned is that we will no longer abandon and apologize for the policies and principles that made this country great for a hollow victory in November," Santorum said to extended applause.
The three-day CPAC comes amid a political spat over an Obama plan to require most insurance policies to cover birth control for women.
The proposed rule has drawn heavy fire from some religious groups, and Santorum pounced on the issue.
"This is the kind of coercion that we can expect," Santorum said. "It's not about contraception. It's about economic liberty, it's about freedom of speech, it's about freedom of religion. It's about government control of your lives and it's got to stop."
Obama on Friday announced a compromise to defuse the row saying his government would no longer require religious organizations to offer free contraception on employee health plans.
While the goal for conservatives is ousting Obama, there is a long road ahead for Republicans.
Romney has won three early victories in state primaries and caucuses and leads in the all-important delegates count, but he slipped up badly this week by losing in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado to Santorum, who is third in the delegate count.
Second place Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker, was addressing CPAC later Friday.
A protracted race could drain Republican resources that many believe would be better spent in a head-to-head matchup with Obama.
The Democrats quickly issued a reaction to the speech by Romney, who they see as the biggest threat to an Obama reelection, saying he distorted his own record as governor in order to pander to a skeptical conservative base.
"Mitt Romney raised taxes and fees, expanded contraception coverage under his healthcare law, and claimed to be pro-choice," the Democratic National Committee said in a statement.
