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So far today, the SRLC has featured at least two barnburner speeches. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) delivered one of the most enthusiastically-received speeches today, and our friend The Right Scoop captured it all. Pence sounded a clarion call to fight the radical Democratic agenda and challenged the party not to shrink from the challenge. The mood here at the SLRC is almost entirely focused on 2010, not 2012, which given the analyses of it earlier in the week, is a bit surprising. But Pence does nothing here to harm his chances if he decides to make a run for higher...

Several have asked how they can see my speech at SRLC tomorrow. The link below offers live video. I speak at approximately 2:00pm (ET). For those unable to watch live, the team will post the video later.

The Southern Republican Leadership Conference Straw Poll doesn't carry a whole lot of weight, since it's skewed — like most of these things — by the makeup of the crowd, the intensity of Ron Paul's supporters and the ease of gaming the vote. That doesn't mean, however, that the various camps aren't trying to game it. One of the organizers told me that two groups, Paul's Campaign for Liberty and Evangelicals for Mitt (which denies ties to Romney) have purchased blocks of tickets to the event, typically given to supporters.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a potential presidential candidate in 2012, called Barack Obama on Thursday "the most radical president in American history" who oversees a "secular, socialist machine." Gingrich ... opening the Southern Republican Leadership Conference with a biting assessment of Obama's policies. "The most radical president in American history has now thrown down the gauntlet to the American people: 'I run a machine. I own Washington and there's nothing you can do about it,'" Gingrich said. He urged his fellow Republicans to stop what he called Obama's "secular, socialist machine."

Here is video of former GOP Rep. J.C. Watts speaking at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference on April 8, 2010, where he challenged Republicans to join together in the cause of showing the young generation of Americans, and the world, what American exceptionalism is supposed to look like. Watts gave a powerful illustration to make the point that many people have forgotten the principles that made America great, and they are waiting for leadership to show a clear picture of the way things can be and should be.

NEW ORLEANS -- Any Republican in the hotel ballroom who hadn't heard Liz Cheney speak before likely walked away impressed. In a nearly 30-minute speech, the former vice president's daughter laid into the Obama administration over health care, foreign policy and national security, concluding that the country simply deserves better. "2010 and 2012 are going to be critical years in the long history of this great republic, and we have to make our voices heard," said Cheney. "We have to stand up and fight." Cheney called the health care reform bill "one of the most arrogant power plays in American...