After my flight back yesterday evening from a long but productive week at CPAC, I’m going to rest today, getting a few things done around the house and preparing for a big week on the blog.  Mostly, I need to rest my voice.  After doing more than two dozen interviews and speaking to a lot of Hot Air fans, I’ve gotten a good case of laryngitis and a little bit of jet lag on top of it.

I’ve been to three CPACs in a row and each has been significantly different.  In 2007, we had spirited debate between the various nascent campaigns in the beginning of the 2008 marathon.  Mitt Romney and Sam Brownback turned out platoons of volunteers, while anti-Romney campaigners had the guy in the dolphin suit making the flip-flop argument.  John McCain angered and galvanized the conservative activists he’d later hope to recruit by snubbing CPAC for the Tonight Show.  Military supporters roamed the halls attempting to build support for better engagement in Iraq, a policy pushed by George Bush that eventually succeeded.  In short, it seemed that momentous debate was everywhere one turned.

Last year, though, the mood was positively funereal.  Mitt Romney withdrew from the presidential campaign on the first day, and the conference never really recovered.  McCain made amends, but the majority of the conservative base only reluctantly accepted him, and some never did at all.  The speakers did a fine job, but there was a sense of going through the motions that left the feeling of an anti-climax — and a harbinger of a bad year to come.

This year felt more active but less certain.  CPAC’s organizers, the American Conservative Union, reported that attendance hit an all-time high, a good indicator that no one’s quitting the fight.  We saw tremendous energy, but not necessarily optimism.  Each of the activist organizations have their goals in sight, but as a movement, they appear bereft of political leaders to follow into battle.  Rush Limbaugh did a great job in rallying them with the finale yesterday, but the conservative movement needs to gain ground in the political/electoral arena in order to succeed in implementing better policies.

In that sense, I’m not a bit surprised to see Romney win the straw poll this year, followed closely by Bobby Jindal.  Jindal is succeeding at that very task in Louisiana, where such a thing would have been seen as impossible two or three years ago.  Romney speaks the language of economy, where Republicans and conservatives seemed tongue-tied for most of 2008.  More than a few people wondered aloud whether Romney would have beaten Barack Obama had he headed the GOP ticket when the economy crashed; he certainly could have explained conservative economic principles better than McCain, who seemed incapable of doing so at the debate.

Romney also appeared at CPAC, which helped; Jindal did not, and still scored high.  However, others who faded to the background also appeared, such as Mark Sanford, Mike Huckabee, and Tim Pawlenty, who delivered an excellent, detailed speech exhorting conservatives and Republicans not to concede ground on health care and other supposed “Democratic” issues.  In fact, I flew back to Minnesota with Governor and Mrs. Pawlenty and had a couple of brief conversations with him.  I didn’t ask him whether he will run for a third term here as governor, but he seems ready to work on the national stage and did a big appearance for Rebuild the Party on Friday night, to a great deal of enthusiasm.

Of course, it’s still far too early for presidential races. A lot of people at CPAC seemed focused on 2012 with a sense of desperation, but more realize that the focus has to be 2010.  That makes the straw poll irrelevant in two different ways; it’s too early to start a presidential campaign anyway, and conservatives and Republicans need to focus on taking control of Congress, especially the House.  Eric Singer said in yesterday’s interview that the economy grows best in divided government; since 1965, there’s a 15-point swing in market expansion between one-party and two-party governance.  We can block a lot of mischief by gaining control of the House, restoring a realistic filibuster potential in the Senate, or both.

I spent a lot of money on CPAC, but it was worth it.  Our friends at CRC Public Relations did a masterful job managing Bloggers Row, providing us with a great support team and keeping us fed and hydrated.  We had more bloggers than ever this time, who did a great job of covering the event.  There were too many highlights to pick just one, but meeting all of the fans of this blog has to be among the best of them.  I’ll talk more about the highlights with Kevin McCullough, who also attended CPAC with his BMX Radio partner Stephen Baldwin and came on Friday’s show, on tomorrow’s TEMS episode at 3 pm ET.