Mitt Romney sent a clear, unambiguous message to hundreds of conservative activists gathered for the 2012 Conservative Political Action Committee, the largest annual gathering of conservative activists. He’s a conservative. The man mocked as a “Massachusetts moderate” (or worse) by his Republican presidential rivals used his family values, business background and experience as Massachusetts governor to defend his conservative bona fides. Romney used the word conservative more than 20 times in a span of 25 minutes.