Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, accompanied by his family, acknowledges applause during his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, Friday, Feb. 10, 2012. He is joined by his wife Karen at right.
(Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum created a stir at a high-profile conservative conference on Friday by aggressively charging that his GOP rivals aren't conservative enough to excite voters - in the primary or general election.
"We always talk about appealing to moderates," Santorum said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). "Why would an undecided voter vote for the candidate that the party's not excited about? We need conservatives to rally for a conservative, to pull with that excitement moderate voters, and to defeat Barack Obama in the fall."
Fresh off his three victories in the nominating contests in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota, Santorum took the stage at CPAC to a prolonged standing ovation. The annual conference, hosted by the American Conservative Union, draws in thousands of conservative activists. ACU Chairman Al Cardenas described it Friday morning as the "ultimate" conservative focus group.
Santorum fully embraced his conservative ideology before the CPAC crowd, telling them, "Conservatives and Tea Party folk - we are not just wings of the Republican party, we are the Republican party."
By mid-speech, Santorum asked rhetorically, "Who has the boldest contrast" against Obama, and "Who has the record they can run on?" A few in the crowd shouted back, "Santorum!" "You!"
The former Pennsylvania senator joked, "I guess I could quit now since you're all convinced of that."
But instead of quitting, Santorum touted his long record of supporting traditionally conservative health care reform policies like tort reform.
"The major reason I'm in this race is I think Obamacare is a game-changer for America," he said. Without ever naming his main GOP rival Mitt Romney, Santorum slammed the former Massachusetts governor for supporting "the stepchild of Obamacare."
The GOP nomination shouldn't go to "someone who would simply give that issue away in the fall," he said, "give the issue away of government control of your health."
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~3/XOg4psj6d34/
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