For the last few days, I’ve been poking in and out of the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit. The Washington conference brings together a good many religiously motivated conservative groups to network and strategize. But perhaps most visibly, it’s a convient forum for many big names in the GOP to begin wooing one of the most visible and energetic parts of the Republican base.

Speakers at this year’s conference include Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Perry, Jim Demint, Mike Pence, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, and many more. It’s probably too early to think about 2012, but the conference does have a presidential straw poll. They recently announced the results, and not surprisingly Huckabee won with 28 percent of the vote — Romney placed second with 12.4 percent, Gov. Pawlenty was at 12.23 percent, Sarah Palin polled 12.06 percent, and Rep. Mike Pence polled 11.89 percent. Basically, it was a four way tie for second place.

The Baptist minister’s victory in the straw poll was probably a foregone conclusion, though I was somewhat surprised by the strength of Romney’s showing. (Romney controversially won the Values Voters straw poll in 2007 when the conference briefly opened it up to online voting in addition to attendees.) That’s not because I expect the crowd would be hostile to Romney, but because Tim Pawlenty was the featured speaker at the conference last evening and blew the roof off the place.

Pawlenty’s speech received several standing ovations — you can read it here. Pawlenty fired right back at the DNC, which has been going after his criticisms of Democrats’ proposed health-care reforms:

The DNC put up a video or some sort of thing attacking me on this debate for various things I’ve said in recent weeks and months, and I accept the challenge. And I’ll just respond by calling out the president back tonight. And I would say – (applause) – and what I’d like to say to him is, DNC and he calls me out, I’ll call you out, call you back, and here’s my message: Stop spending the country into bankruptcy. Stop taxing us into oblivion. And the next time you address a group of young people maybe you should apologize for the crushing debt you’re putting on their shoulders.

If the DNC thinks they’re putting him in his place, they’re really just elevating his profile. Then near the end of the speech, Pawlenty told a Reagan anecdote that he capped by reciting 2 Chronicles 7:14. The entire crowd began reciting the verse along with him — it was definitely a moment. Pawlenty simply nailed his speech. Right message, right crowd, right tone, right on. That said, Pawlenty’s speech at the convention last year wasn’t the best. If Pawlenty is gearing up to run in 2012, time will tell if this speech represents him rising to the occasion or if he merely found a rare moment in the zone. Either way, after witnessing his command of the audience Friday night, people underestimate Pawlenty at their peril. On Saturday, I overheard attendees still buzzing about his speech the previous night.

And in fairness to Romney, he was given a much worse timeslot and seats for his speech were only half-full. It was still a decent speech though, and Romney is proven as a campaigner and politician. One less-than-stellar speech at the Values Voters conference that not many people saw is hardly something he’s worried about. Romney’s delivered great speeches and he’ll deliver more in the future.

It’s interesting Pawlenty’s speech didn’t help him out in the straw poll a bit more (though it’s worth noting that half the attendees didn’t bother voting in the straw poll), but my favorable impression of his speech is hardly unique. The crowd’s positive reaction was the headline at both the NYT and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Whether this will translate into any momentum for Pawlenty remains to be seen, but I don’t think anyone expected him to be a breakout star at the Values Voters conference.