In English, the census tells a story of growth and prosperity. In French, the census announces the decline of Quebec's standing in Confederation - and of the French language's place in North America.

Lester Pearson predicted that he would be the last Canadian prime minister to speak only English. To date, his prediction has held true. But not for much longer, by the looks of things.

The 2001 and 2006 Censuses showed sharp declines in the relative size of the population that claimed French as a "mother tongue," down to barely more than one-fifth.

Tomorrow's message: "We never counted on those 6 Nevada electoral votes."

Newt said that his campaign "is a mortal threat to the establishment because we intend to change Washington and not accommodate it." It might just be intimidating because any establishment figure who hears the whole plan must wonder why Newt intends to grab every third rail in politics at the same time.

Newt's vice is that he lacks discipline, and his laundry list of policy ideas shows it. Mitt Romney may have a 59-point economic plan but he doesn't talk about all the parts of it on the campaign trail. With Newt, his policy laundry list could be re-packaged as a stump speech. In Newt's mind, the only real logistical problem is figuring out how many different executive orders he needs to sign.

So is he serious or is he just trying to stake out a politically extreme position? Why not both?

Ladies and gentlemen, we must be Modern, we must be refined in our Cruelty to Animals. That is the message brought to us by our guests this evening.

One might even say: severe.

And if Mitt Romney loses in November, tomorrow's message will be: What do you expect when you nominate a moderate?

As for his time in Massachusetts, Romney described the experience as fighting "long odds in a deep blue state." He described his efforts to restrict same-sex marriage as his work to stop "Massachusetts [from] becoming the Las Vegas of gay marriage."

Romney's command of the audience was very strong, but it must be understood that this is because he was ultimately following the GOP base. He promised that borrowing 4 dollars for every dollar we spend "will end under my presidency." He promised that he will "finally balance the American budget". Even his usual line about Obamacare was made more extreme. Romney usually promises to sign an executive order to stop funding and implementing the healthcare law, a tacit acknowledgment that it will be a legislative challenge to repeal it. At CPAC, he was less ambiguous, promising his Presidency "will start with the easiest cut of all, I will eliminate Obamacare."

It's impossible to make predictions about a hypothetical Romney presidency when it is not even November. But as Romney made his promises, it was hard not to be reminded of George H.W. Bush's infamous line, "read my lips, no new taxes." Romney was promising to implement every hope and dream of the audience at CPAC, and it will be very hard to do that.

The main anti-Romney lines were: "We are not going to win these elections because the Republican candidate has the most money to beat up their opponent" and "Why would an undecided voter vote for a candidate of a party that the party is not excited about?"

The most commonly used word by Santorum was "Contrast", both in terms of Santorum providing a contrast between himself and Romney, and between the eventual GOP nominee and Obama.

But the speech didn't knock it out of the park. One of Santorum's better speeches from the campaign trail has to be his speech after the Iowa caucus, where Santorum spoke about his working class background and his personal life story. Sticking to the CPAC talking points deprives Santorum of a chance to connect his personal story with one issue that doesn't always interest conservatives: upward mobility.

Step 1. Make Extremism Uncool: Identify the 20 most extreme Members of Congress from both parties who have refused to compromise on important issues. Begin with the Govtrack.us list that's been tracking the most extreme members of Congress since 2004.

Step 2. Money: To take on our broken system, we need to raise the funds to win by its rules. We need to create a grassroots campaign of donors who will give money to challengers of the most extreme Members in their primaries. We also need to recruit business leaders with the resources to turn the heat up on the extremists.

Step 3. Awareness: Run ads in extreme Member's districts saying "Did You Know You Are Electing an Extreme Member of Congress?" national ad campaign that identifies the most extreme members of Congress as threats to national security, our economy and our children's future.

In 2008, Romney campaigned as a conservative culture warrior. The campaign did not succeed, at least in part because the words sounded so false in his mouth. This cycle, Romney has dialed back the culture war, emphasizing economic issues instead. 

Now there are signs that 2008 Romney is reappearing—and CPAC may be the occasion for another outing.

This tendency is dangerous, for a lot of reasons, but I'll mention here just one: the risk of turning Mitt Romney into the next Walter Mondale.