Romney has been hitting all the right notes with conservatives, now he just needs to sing them with feeling.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday delivered a faultlessly tailored appeal to more than 1,000 grass-roots conservative activists hungry for a renewed commitment to limited government.

Addressing the 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr. Romney stood out from the pack of Republican presidential aspirants that included Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mike Huckabee by promising to end taxes on earnings from interest, dividends and capital gains, and to cap federal spending and veto every attempt to break that cap -- whether proposed by a Republican or Democratic Congress.

"I know how to veto. I like vetoes," Mr. Romney said.

He also won the straw poll, out-distancing frontrunner Rudy Giuliani.

Despite his record of inconsistency on some social issues, the former Massachusetts governor got 21 percent of the 1,705 votes cast by paid registrants to the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference. They were asked who their first choice would be for the Republican nomination.

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor whose moderate stances on social issues irks the party's right wing, was second with 17 percent.

Captain Ed, an enthusiastic Giuliani supporter, did his best to spin Giuliani's loss:

However, the straw poll probably reflects Romney's organizing abilities far more than his popular support among conservatives. The Romney campaign turned CPAC from a get-acquainted event to a mini-convention by recruiting scores of young activists to attend CPAC and haranguing attendees to vote for Mitt. The Brownback campaign did the same with a smaller coterie of foot soldiers. None of the other candidates bothered to do anything of the kind.

Understanding that, these numbers should be somewhat disappointing to the Romney campaign. Take a look at Giuliani's numbers. Here's a candidate who supposedly didn't impress in his speech on Friday, whose consistent positions have him in conflict with more than a few of the groups comprising CPAC, and who didn't have any organization at the conference or spend any time with the attendees outside of the speech. Despite all of these handicaps, 17% of the conservatives at CPAC selected Rudy over any of the other candidates -- only four points lower than Romney. He beat Sam Brownback and Newt Gingrich, who is widely presumed to be preparing his own bid for the presidency.

I see--a "moral" victory. Be that as it may, what it really demonstrates is that Romney is smarter that Giuliani. As one experienced politico put it:

"Rudy thought he was addressing a Republican audience," said Mike Long, chairman of the New York State Conservative Party. "Mitt understood this is an audience of people who are conservatives first."

Since the Captain does link to me anyways, I don't risk much in contradicting him.

There are three things to consider here: The national polls at this point reflect fame rather than support, so they can be safely dismissed. Giuliani's native support among secular conservatives is admittedly strong and deservedly so. In spite of his mistakes at CPAC, he has a huge reservoir of goodwill. Finally, the goodwill only takes you so far--Giuliani was simply outplayed by Romney and Brownback who understood the terrain they were fighting on and came prepared to make the most of it.

We all saw a glimmer here of one of Romney's strengths--his generalship is without peer. He works hard to understand the reality of the situation and then applies the right strategies. Its this quality more than any other that makes me a real fan. As President, it will be damn hard to outflank him, whereas Giulani, who I like and respect very much, doesn't have the right kind of political skills to succeed in Washington. Giuliani had a very agressive style in New York City and it worked for him, but its simply not realistic to believe he can ride roughshod over the powers that be in D.C. Its going to require the kind of finesse that Romney demonstrates so consistently.

There is still hope that conservatives, particularly Evangelicals are religious bigots, but Romney hasn't put a foot wrong so far, and I wouldn't bet on a misstep in the future.