Many Republicans have been arguing that the party’s focus on social issues is a mistake at a time when voters are concerned about the economic downturn and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the emphasis at the summit, sponsored the Family Research Council, was still decidedly on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion. The crowd rose to its feet to applaud Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California who caused a furor by denouncing same-sex marriage at the Miss USA contest, as she declared that “God chose me” to make the case she made.

That this bloc of the Republican Party is becoming re-energized presents complications for any Republican thinking about running for president in 2012. It is going to be hard to win the nomination without strongly courting this segment of the party…

“There are so many people who have told us as conservatives that we should move to the center, on the sanctity of marriage or the sanctity of life,” said Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas who ran for president in 2008 and is likely to run again in 2012. “ ‘Just move to the center.’

“I’m not sure the center makes a whole lot of sense when it’s coming from people who certainly don’t have our interest, or our country’s interest, at heart.”