Santorum, Romney, Gingrich Address CPAC

Riding the momentum of three primary victories—in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota—Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was the rock star of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington D.C. Friday.

Joined on stage by his wife and children, the former Pennsylvania senator earned various standing ovations from the pumped-up, capacity crowd at the event’s main ballroom. He presented himself as the true conservative in the race and, like the other two candidates who spoke at CPAC on Friday, trashed Obamacare, saying a mission to overturn it motivated him to run for president.

A few hours later Mitt Romney received his biggest applause about half way into his 25-minute speech, when he got around to trashing Obamacare. Otherwise, the former Massachusetts governor received a much colder reception from the crowd than Santorum or Newt Gingrich, who took the stage last. “I will eliminate Obamacare,” Romney said. It’s the only time the crowd cheered loudly and stood up in approval.

About an hour later Gingrich earned waves of applause with many of his witty one-liners, mostly trashing the Obama Administration. The boisterous crowd often broke out chanting “Newt, Newt, Newt” as he revealed his plans for fixing a broken government. “My first executive order is to abolish all White House czars,” he said over thunderous clapping. Gingrich also said that among his first goals as commander-in-chief is to repeal Obamacare.

Speaking of Obama’s hostile takeover of the nation’s healthcare system, Judicial Watch held an informative panel on the subject in the main ballroom following Romney’s speech. “Obamacare is an unprecedented power grab,” said JW President Tom Fitton before introducing the panel of experts that discussed how the measure is unconstitutional.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who bailed on CPAC at the last minute in 2011, will wrap the conference up with a Saturday afternoon speech. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Florida Governor Rick Scott will also speak at different times throughout the day. Among the more interesting seminars on the final day appears to be one that addresses state versus federal law involving illegal immigration.