Tomorrow, Santorum, Gingrich and Romney will be speaking at CPAC, but it is a very big day for Romney. His conservative credentials are in question and CPAC is the the time and place to remedy that problem.
Today (Thursday the 9th), Romney met behind closed doors with 36 Conservative activists, including TEA party leaders, members of the NRA and the American Conservative Union. A number of conservatives invited, did not attend the meeting. Tomorrow will be a very important day, for Romney. He will be addressing 10,000 at the Conservative Public Action Conference as he tries to bring TEA party conservatives "on board." Understand, these people do not want to be appeased. They are players in conservative politics, despite the NYTimes pronouncement of lost influence. Funny, in that same article, the Times mentions the fact that TEA party affiliations represent 18% of Americans. Pull a McCain on us, and the election will go to Obama, period.
Understand that this year's CPAC is not a cheerleaders conference; not at all. It is about the coming election and how we, as a population of patriots, will approach the coming election as we work through the primary season and coalesce around the GOP's representative.