Conservatives Blast President, Congress at CPAC

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the presidential straw poll winner at this year's annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, came in a distant second.

The conference in Washington, D.C., brought together thousands of conservatives from which the pulse and momentum of the movement is taken.

The fiery rhetoric was hot all weekend long.

"We need to repeal every single word of Obamacare," Cruz said.

Some conservative presidential hopefuls, like Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said it's time to start a rebellion.

Meanwhile, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned of God's judgment on America should it continue to forget about the Creator.

And some, like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, delivered a few punch lines.

"To President Carter, I want to issue a sincere apology. It is no longer fair to say he was the worst president of this great country in my lifetime -- President Obama has proven me wrong," Jindal said.

After the speech, the governor and possible presidential candidate told CBN News that the president's policies are helping the conservative cause.

"The failures of the execution and design of Obamacare may be the best argument against progressivism we're ever going to see," Jindal said.

"I think people are now beginning to see it doesn't make sense just to trust the government to do everything for us," he continued. "It doesn't work. We need to trust the founding fathers who were right to trust the American people, not a bunch of guys in D.C."

Conservatives, like Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., were wasting no time bashing big government in Washington.

"Right now, our tax code is 10 times the size of the Bible and has none of the good news," the possible presidential candidate said.

But critics said the news is not good for Republicans because of supposed infighting over how conservative the movement should be.

Ryan sees it differently.

"The way the Left tells it, the Republican Party is in this big massive civil war. It's Tea Party versus establishment -- libertarians versus social conservatives. There's infighting, conflict, backbiting, discord. Look, I'm Irish -- that's my idea of a family reunion," Ryan said.

But all eyes were on New Jersey governor and possible presidential contender Chris Christie. Some conservatives think his record is too moderate. He wasn't invited to CPAC last year. But this year, he was well received and played up his social conservative record.

"When we say we're pro-life -- and that we're proudly pro-life -- that doesn't mean we're pro-life just when that human being is in the womb. We need to be pro-life when they leave the womb as well," Christie said.

After his speech, Christie told CBN News he was glad to be back.

"We have a lot in common in terms of what my record has been and so I felt the reception was great and I look forward to coming back next year if I'm invited," he said.

Christie's focus is on something conservatives are well aware of: broadening the scope of the party and coming across as more compassionate.

"Our ideas are better than their ideas, and if we put them forward in an unapologetic, straight way, we can do it. But, also, we've got to go into places and campaign in places where we're uncomfortable," the governor said.

"We can't just keep going to the Chamber of Commerce luncheons, and we can't just keep coming to CPAC. We've got to go into Latino neighborhoods, go into African-American neighborhoods," he admonished.

While this conference may be a chance for conservatives to look forward to what they hope will be a promising 2014 midterm election season, it still doesn't resolve the bigger issue: that is, whether the conservative movement would be better served by being a big tent or hold true to constitutional conservative principles.