WASHINGTON, D.C.  "We're going to get the band back together, and we're on a mission from God."

That was the message out of the first day of the 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, taking place yesterday, today, and tomorrow at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The quotation, lifted from the Blues Brothers, came from Richard Viguerie, a direct-mail pioneer known as one of the "funding fathers" of the conservative movement. Speaking on the conference's first panel, "Strategies for a Bold Conservative Future," Mr. Viguerie declared that conservatives "should withhold our support from all of the top-tier candidates" for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination  referring to Mayor Giuliani, Senator McCain of Arizona, and the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney.

"I feel very angry and betrayed," Mr. Viguerie said. "We, as conservatives, need new leaders."

The question is who those leaders should be. If conservatives are unhappy with the socially liberal Mr. Giuliani, the maverick Mr. McCain, and the oscillating Mr. Romney, whom would they prefer? At CPAC, the question has no answer.

An alien  or, say, a Democrat  wandering through the halls of CPAC might think that the nomination battle currently underway is a real dogfight between Mr. Romney and Senator Brownback of Kansas, a social conservative of good standing in the movement. Upon entering one's hotel room at the conference, the first thing one stumbles across is a slick flyer (literally slick, it could trip you and kill you) for Mr. Brownback, touting his credentials as "Proudly Pro-Life" and "A Reagan Conservative You Can Trust." (The "You Can Trust" is underlined, presumably meant to stick a needle into the less-than-consistent-over-the-years Mr. Romney.)

Meanwhile, both Mr. Brownback and Mr. Romney have brigades of young people handing out flyers and, in Mr. Romney's case, notice of a reception for convention-goers to be held tonight.

Messrs. McCain and Giuliani, meanwhile, are essentially unrepresented. Mr. McCain is skipping the conference altogether. Much grumbling could be heard throughout the day yesterday about the slight. "He just doesn't like us," I overheard one woman say as she made her way into the main ballroom. Mr. Giuliani will be here to speak at noon today, but, as of yesterday, he appeared to have no presence on the ground in the form of volunteers or campaign materials. The former mayor's decision to attend was only announced Monday.

And, so, there is on display at this year's CPAC a wide gap between the reality of the current Republican primary contest and the second-coming-of-Reagan fantasies of conservative activists.

"I'm very offended that the media is telling us we have a choice of just three for the nomination, because they're the only ones who can raise $100 million," longtime conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of the Eagle Forum, said at the morning panel. "The Republican nomination cannot be bought," she said, pointing out that Reagan did not have the most money when he ran in 1980.

But Mr. Reagan had spent years as a conservative favorite, ever since giving a televised speech supporting the 1964 candidacy of Barry Goldwater. There is no one in that position today. The former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, perhaps comes closest, but with a messy marital history, a Joe Biden-like propensity for making foolish off-the-cuff statements, and an image battered by his years fighting President Clinton on the national stage, his current non-candidacy looks likely to stay its current course.

Perhaps most realistic was Mr. Viguerie's conclusion that conservatives  at least the social conservatives who make up such a sizeable portion of CPAC  simply aren't going to have a successful candidate in 2008. "We are not at the size and the strength we need to be right now," he said. "I don't think we have the infrastructure to support a Ronald Reagan-type candidate." He estimated it would take six to 10 years to get back up to that level.

Still, what remains to be seen is whether the conservative grassroots activists in the crowd here share the dissatisfaction with the current presidential field evinced by those on the stage yesterday. Both Messrs. Giuliani and Romney are set to speak today. The reception each gets should be telling.