Romney scores with religious right

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney didn’t deliver his much-anticipated speech about his Mormon faith at Friday night’s meeting of the Values Voters Summit.

But he did make a couple of jokes about it.

“By the way, I imagine that one or two of you may have heard that I’m Mormon,” Romney said.

With the crowd laughing, Romney added that he understands some people won’t vote for a Mormon, but that’s because they’ve been listening to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). The Senate majority leader is also a Mormon.

{mosads}Despite that 800-pound gorilla in the packed ballroom, Romney was well received by the socially conservative Evangelical crowd.

The former governor stuck to a discussion on family values, discussing all of the religious rights greatest hits.

Romney talked about what he sees as the importance of two-parent homes, the threat of gay marriage and his anti-abortion rights stance.

“Now, I don’t have to tell the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family that the American family is under stress, under attack,” Romney said.

The former governor also addressed his change of heart on the abortion issue, something that has faded as an issue for Romney’s presidential campaign since he first got in the race.

“I will be a pro-life president just like I was a pro-life governor,” he said. “Like Ronald Reagan and Henry Hyde, I’m a convert to the cause.”

Romney was the last candidate to address the Washington Briefing sponsored by the Family Research Council and attended by members of a number of other socially conservative groups.

Romney scored points during his evening address, saying as president he would “champion” a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage, something former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) did not commit to earlier in the day.

“A federal marriage amendment is the only way we can protect marriage from liberal, unelected judges,” Romney said to big applause.

While Romney seemed to do well in front of the group, it is the next presidential candidate scheduled to speak to the crowd that carries the biggest question mark.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is slated to speak Saturday morning, and conservative leaders were hardly rolling out the red carpet the day before, underscoring that they still see Giuliani as too liberal on social issues to support him or even abstain from criticizing him. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will be the last White House hopeful to address the group.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins warned Friday afternoon that Giuliani might be able to win some converts to his cause Saturday, “but not enough.”