GOP speakers court key group at conservative conference

The second day of the Conservative Political Action Conference turned into a call to arms Friday as aspiring national leaders and other favorites of the movement's grass roots warned that President Obama and his party have ushered in an era of American decline. As they exhorted activists to help overturn the Democrats' congressional majorities in November, speaker after speaker took the dais and touched familiar chords of conservatism: smaller government, lower taxes, limited federal spending and a muscular assertion of American power abroad. They rallied a few thousand partisans who had arrived at the Marriott Wardman Park ballroom encouraged, even giddy, by the prospect of Republican successes in the midterm elections and beyond...read more