Rick Santorum lags in polls, not confidence

ORLANDO -- Former Sen. Rick Santorum, lagging the GOP field in a recent Gallup Poll , had one objective Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference here: Prove his electability as a presidential candidate despite getting crushed in his 2006 bid for reelection to the Senate.

In a 10-minute speech devoted entirely to his congressional record, Santorum argued his election to the Senate in 1994 proved his appeal at the ballot box.

"In a bad election year," he said, "within two weeks time we went from single digits to winning that race" in 1994. Media, he said, "wouldn't even talk to me because they said I didn't have a chance. I sort of felt like that a few months ago when I was in the race," he added to laughs and applause.

As for the issues, Santorum said, he took on "Hillarycare" while running in 1994 against a Democratic incumbent, Sen. Harris Wofford, whose campaign was run by former Bill Clinton advisers James Carville and Paul Begala.

"You want someone who's run a national-type election on the issue of health care in a swing state that we need to win the presidency against the best the Democrats have to offer? You're looking at a guy who did it, and did it in style, and we won."

But Santorum's biggest applause came when he invoked a favorite talking point of the current Republican presidential field.

"We have something to be proud of, not apologize for, in what America is," he said.

Watch highlights from CPAC in Orlando below: