Ryan got a rapturous response -- a standing ovation. After the conference broke for lunch, I ran across Bryan Fischer, the radio host and evangelical activist known for his anti-gay and anti-Mormon rhetoric. He fears that Romney is going to lose -- and the reason, he believes, is that Romney is not coming across as a strong social conservative.

"You'll notice the applause for Mitt Romney was polite but not enthusiastic," Fischer said. "The response for Paul Ryan was enthusiastic. That's because we know that social values are part of his DNA -- part of the wallpaper of Paul Ryan's soul." The Romney campaign, he said, has "put a sock in Paul Ryan's mouth," and needs to un-muzzle him if it wants to succeed.

Fischer is a fringe figure -- after being denounced from the podium by Romney last year, he is not on the Values Voter program this time -- but the idea that Romney would benefit from greater emphasis on social issues was common among both speakers and attendees at the summit. While many in the professional Republican class worry that Romney is insufficiently focused on his core economic message, and unduly prone to taking up distracting side issues, for this group, just the opposite is true.

While some Republicans worry that Romney is too prone to taking up distracting social issues, for this group, just the opposite is true.

Pundits will tell you the election is about the economy, "and it is," said Rep. Eric Cantor, the House majority leader. "But for all of us who know that this country values liberty and freedom, we know that this election is about something more. This election is going to determine whether or not the very moral fabric of our country will be upheld."

I met Ronald Goss, a 66-year-old retired law-enforcement officer who now runs a ministry in Locust Dale, Virginia, with his wife. He offered to send me a free eight-by-10 black-and-white drawing of Jesus, eyes closed, snuggling a lamb. The campaign, he said, is "ugly," and not focused on the right things. "Protecting life, for one thing," he said. "We do not believe in murdering babies. We need to bring America back to the principles it was founded on."

What Tony Perkins, the Family Research Council's president, noticed about Ryan's speech was that he got heckled. Three times, protesters shouting slogans about getting corporate money out of politics stood up to disrupt Ryan, only to get promptly shouted down with chants of "U.S.A.!" and hauled out by guards. To Perkins, it's clear Ryan is a target for the steadfastness of his views.

"He tends to get the hecklers, just as Sarah Palin did," Perkins told me. "People want to silence him. They don't want his voice to be heard. That makes it even more important that we listen."

Romney, Perkins said, will win by tapping a well of voters who aren't showing up in any of the current polls because they didn't vote last time. "They were not excited by John McCain and didn't feel threatened by Barack Obama," he said. But this time, he said, they will vote.