Weigel

Opening Act: New Values

Attendees sing the National Anthem during The Family Research Council (FRC) Action Values Voter Summit on September 14, 2012, in Washington, DC. The summit is an annual political conference for US social conservative activists and elected officials. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GettyImages) Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GettyImages

I’ll be spending the bulk of the day at the annual Values Voter Summit, a joint production of the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, and the American Family Association. Stay tuned for reports on the last big confab for social conservatives before everybody goes out and votes.

Jason Horowitz trolls the Romney campaign, attempting to get them to utter the real “n” word.

“What I’m saying is,” said Wong, “Governor Romney’s embrace of American values and interests and his call for American leadership is a philosophy of peace through strength.”

So then does he dispute the classisfication of neoconservative?

“What I’m saying is,” said Wong, “Governor Romney’s embrace of American values and interests and his call for American leadership…”

So does he feel comfortable being called a neoconservative?

Rich Williamson, one of the Bush-ites who speaks for Romney on foreign policy, says that a strong Mitt presidency would have forestalled the embassy protests.

Rolling Stone tries, fails, to get an Obama endorsement from Robert Zimmerman. If only someone had told them that he is slippery in dealing with journalists.

Paul Ryan talks to conservatives and gets the hard questions.

I asked Ryan about the gap between the pile of policy proposals and the perception that the campaign is lacking detail or ideas. He joked that he was learning a new word — “narrativizing,” meaning that “our opponents or some in the media” are feeding a story line at odds with the facts. He said firmly that “Mitt Romney has put out more specifics on on policies, more details on the budget . . . than the president of the United States, and certainly the Senate,” pointing to his energy, budget and tax policies, along with others.

I’m a huge fan of Hanna Rosin’s book, but I still enjoy watching people get apopleptic about The Atlantic.