Disdain for President Obama's controversial new mandate that religious institutions pay for their workers' birth control emerged as a unifying rally cry at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Thursday, suggesting Republicans will hit the president hard on the issue during this year's presidential campaign.
Bound by a common desire to deny President Obama a second term, restive activists gathering Thursday for the 39th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington find themselves lacking a clear champion in the suddenly scrambled Republican race to choose an alternative.
"The gift of being underestimated is a great gift."
While magnifying Republican gaffes and infighting, the mainstream press also delights in political cliffhangers, speculating on which presidential hopeful will finally blink and drop out of the race, who's flirting with a surprise announcement, who faces the impending doom of scandal.
Senate Republicans on Thursday introduced a bill that would undo the first year of automatic defense spending cuts set to begin in 2013 under sequestration.
Mitt Romney took a hard line on illegal immigration, was labeled anti-immigrant and had a national network of Hispanic Republicans come out against him, yet he won Florida's primary by carrying more than half of Hispanics who voted - better than he did among whites.
Mitt Romney took a hard-line position on immigration into the Florida primary Tuesday and emerged victorious, signaling that his stance isn't costing him yet, though it could still be a problem if he's the GOP's presidential nominee in November.
Even the most connected Democrats are not above handicapping the potential Republican ticket and the likeliest team to seriously challenge President Obama come November.
President Barack Obama is pressing his case for changes in how the Senate does business, hoping to ease the partisan gridlock, and he wants to bar lawmakers from profiting from their service.
