6:45 p.m. | Updated DES MOINES — The prospective Republican presidential candidates may be united in their goal of trying to defeat President Obama, but they signaled differences in their approach on Saturday as they addressed hundreds of activists here at the Conservative Principles Conference.
Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi urged Republicans to keep a tight focus on the policies of the Obama administration, the state of the economy and the size of government.
“It is absolutely critical that we elect a new president,” Mr. Barbour said. “I think the best way — perhaps the only way — is for us to make sure the 2012 campaign is focused on policy. The American people agree with us on policy.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who took the stage after Mr. Barbour, offered a different view, ranking values above the economy and national security in his three-point list of what the next presidential campaign should be about.
“Some people may say we should stay away from values, stay away from social issues,” Mr. Gingrich said. “I’m here to tell you that if you don’t start with values, if you don’t start by saying who we are as Americans, the rest of it doesn’t matter.”
Mr. Gingrich drew applause when he suggested that students “in every class in K-12 and in every tax-paid college” should learn the words of the Founding Fathers that “we are endowed by our creator.”
A tension is coursing through the Republican Party for what brand of conservatism — social or fiscal — will emerge in the presidential race. The Tea Party movement focused broadly on fiscal concerns in the midterm elections last fall, but many Iowa activists are more likely to be evangelical than libertarian, and religious conservative groups have an influential voice in politics.
The Conservative Principles Conference is the latest in a series of forums for the party’s presidential contenders who are visiting Iowa to test their appeal in the early stages of the Republican nominating fight. Mr. Barbour and Mr. Gingrich, both likely candidates, were joined later Saturday afternoon by Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who is moving closer to exploring a candidacy.
“We’ve been told that we need a truce on social issues,” Ms. Bachmann said. “I highly disagree with that. Social conservatism is fiscal conservatism.”
Ms. Bachmann, who reminded the audience that she was born in Iowa, was greeted with a standing ovation and received enthusiastic applause throughout her remarks. She delivered a series of one-liners — most aimed at Mr. Obama — and built her speech around a slide-show-like presentation of the country’s fiscal challenges. She took particular aim at the health care law and criticized the waivers that have been granted to implement the policy.
“I want a waiver from the last two years of President Obama,” Ms. Bachmann said.
Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who established himself as a conservative leader in the midterm elections last fall, delivered the keynote address on Saturday evening. He said that he was not planning to run for president and that he believed the party’s candidates needed to strike a balance between fiscal and social issues.
“We know there is a faith component, a social and cultural aspect to this, but what I think is bringing everyone together right now is the realization that we’re getting ready to go over a fiscal cliff,” Mr. DeMint said in an interview. “We can’t have a strong military, we can’t have a vibrant culture if we bankrupt our country, so there is a unity around that within the Tea Party movement.”
He added, “You see folks who are not as interested in the social side, but they are all together on the fiscal issues. That’s what you’ll see in the election – not an abandonment of the social issues, but you’re going to see a consensus among a majority of the fiscal issues.”
Representative Steve King of Iowa, one of the most outspoken members of Congress who often rankles his Republican leadership, sponsored Saturday’s conference and urged the conservative activists to take their role seriously in helping to sort through the party’s field of presidential candidates.
“You, as Iowans, have more to say about the agenda, the planks of the platform and who the next president of the United States will be — on a per capita basis — than anyone else in the country,” Mr. King said. “It’s an extraordinary opportunity, a privilege and a blessing.”