I'm here at the Conservative Political Action Conference today, hoping to bring you some live-blogging from the year's most important gathering for charting the future of the conservative movement and the Republican Party. But, like last year, the wi-fi is spotty to nonexistent, but I'll my best try to bring you as much of the action as I can. So far, the mood, oddly, seems more ebullient than last year, when a dispirited pall hung over the place, particularly after Mitt Romney used the venue to drop out of the GOP presidential primary. Somehow the attendees seem energized by the prospect of a fight against "the most radical president ever elected in this country's history" (John Bolten) and against the creeping "European-style socialism" they believe is poised to take over the country. More on that in a moment, after I gather my thoughts on the first big speech of the morning, from Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan. --Sarah Posner
