Conservatism's Fresh Face

I had expected this year's 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference to be a low-attendance dud. The conventional wisdom was that conservatives were a spent, divided force in American politics. Well, they are divided, to be sure. But, judging from CPAC, they aren't finished with us. I've been to many CPACs over the years, and this was the most heavily attended and, more significant, the most youthful, and amped-up since Ronald Reagan's day.

To understand why, I'd like to introduce you to the conservative—pro-life, anti-tax, pro-Mexican-fence, pro-"surge"—"director of campus activism" for the Georgia College Republicans. This Georgia Tech business major is worlds away from earlier waves of "CR's"—the Skull and Bones of the Reagan-built GOP, and hungry young men such as Ralph Reed and the late Lee Atwater.

First of all, she is a she: Ruth Malhotra, who just turned 23. Her parents were born in Calcutta and New Delhi. They emigrated to the United States so that he could teach. They converted from Hinduism to Christianity. Now Ruth—not a Hindi name, for sure—is a devout Southern Baptist and a member of the Rev. Charles Stanley's megachurch, one of the largest and most  influential in the country.

Her '08 candidate? Mitt Romney! So here we have: an Indian Southern Baptist evangelical daughter of Hindus with a mixed Georgia-Delhi accent working hard for a Mormon Harvard-trained patrician whose faith she regards as a "cult"—her words—but who, in her mind, represents the GOP's best chance for keeping the White House in Republican hands. "I like his business mind set," she told me.

Is this a great country, or what?

Ms. Malhotra, who has her own business card with an elephant on it (!), was one of many straw poll voters who allowed Romney to squeak by with a victory—such as it was—of 21 percent support in the presidential straw poll CPAC always conducts. (Perhaps more tellingly, Rudy Giuliani came in second, at 17 percent.)