Mitt Romney tells CPAC how great America is

Mitt Romney delivers a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington DC, in which he warms to theme of America's greatness.

The conference is widely seen as the unofficial start of the race to win the Republican Party's nomination to run in the 2012 presidential election.

Two of the frontrunners for the nomination, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, are not attending the conference, which is attended mostly by young supporters of the Republican Party.

Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, narrowly lost the Republican presidential nomination to John McCain in 2008.

The conference ends on Saturday, with a straw poll that will provide welcome publicity to one of the speakers, and boost their chances of winning the party's nomination.