AP Photo

Earlier today, I dubbed Mitt Romney's speech to CPAC an exercise in "checklist conservatism" -- just hitting on all the market-tested issues of importance to conservatives. Well, tonight, Gov. Scott Walker's impressive speech to the conference was an example of the opposite -- courageous conservatism. In Mitt Romney's prepared remarks, a variation of the word "conservative" appeared 24 times. In Walker's prepared remarks, it appeared zero. That's because Walker actually has an impressive record of conservative accomplishments to talk about.