Days after his three-state sweep in Tuesday's primary and caucus contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum addressed a packed ballroom at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in the nation's capital to underscore his conservative credentials.
The audience, packed with young people, gave Santorum, the latest Republican presidential candidate to surge in the polls, a healthy greeting, though not a boisterous one.
He began by saying he was the "authentic and true conservative in the race," taking a dig at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the race's frontrunner. "I know you and you know me, and that's important," Santorum said of his conservative positions on a range of issues.
For Republicans to win the presidency, he said they must be able to draw sharp distinctions from the present administration. "We are not going to win with money, we are going to win with contrast. We are going to win with ideas. We are going to win by making Barack Obama and his failed policies the issue in this race."
He hit the Obama administration hard on what he said was its decision to require the Catholic Church to provide health insurance coverage for contraception, saying that's the kind of coercion we should expect from Obama. He was referring to changes in health-care laws that require organizations, including those backed by churches though not churches themselves, to cover contraception in their employees' health coverage.
"It's not about contraception, it's about economic liberty. It's about government control of your lives, and it's gotta stop," he said.
Santorum, whose campaign received a major boost Tuesday when he swept the day's three primary contests, also criticized rival Republican candidate Mitt Romney over his past support of a health-care mandate and prior belief in climate change.
"Who would provide the clean contrast of belief in a conservative vision in bottom-up, free people, free markets?" he asked.
Santorum was joined on stage for the entire speech by his wife, Karen, and five of their seven children.
