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Mitt Romney's speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday had two objectives: Demonstrate his conservative credentials and make himself more relatable.

And so, even after Rick Santorum spent the morning ralling the audience to his side and urging them not to settle for someone they can't enthusiastically support, Romney underscored his message with this assertion: “I know conservatism because I have lived conservatism.” Going further, perhaps in response to Democrats looking to ding him in every way possible in the general election, he insisted, “I was a severely conservative Republican governor.”

But first, Romney detailed how his parents and his wife’s parents came to America and worked their way to prosperity, adding, “The values that allowed my parents to achieve their dreams are the same values they instilled in my siblings and me. Those aren’t values I just talk about; they are values that I live every day.”

Romney pointed out that he’s been married for 42 years, and though he didn’t mention being a Mormon, he indicated that his faith has been a conservative constant for him.

The former Massachusetts governor also explained how conservatism has applied to his professional life: “In business, if you’re not fiscally conservative, you’re bankrupt. I spent 25 years balancing budgets, eliminating waste, and keeping as far away from government as was humanly possible. I did things conservatism is designed for -- I started new businesses and turned around broken ones.” Then came his longest applause line: “And I am not ashamed to say that I was very successful at it.”

Romney next turned to his record as governor, noting that he entered office facing a $3 billion budget deficit and left the state a $2 billion surplus. So, despite preferring to stay away from government, he exclaimed, “I can’t wait to get my hands on Washington.”

Buried a little deeper in the speech was his stance on social issues. On gay marriage, Romney said he prevented same-sex couples from descending on Massachusetts from other states to take advantage of its laws, adding, “On my watch, we fought hard and prevented Massachusetts from becoming the Las Vegas of gay marriage.”

He cited examples of his commitment to clamping down on abortions and said he fought for abstinence education in schools. “And I defended the Catholic Church’s right to serve their community in ways that were consistent with their conscience through adoption programs that placed children in a home with a mom and a dad,” Romney said.

What he avoided, though, was the issue of the week: the Obama administration’s rule requiring religious-affiliated institutions to offer women contraceptive health care coverage. (The administration modified its stance Friday, saying that insurance companies, not the religious organizations, will be required to offer women contraceptive care free of charge.) The Democratic National Committee spent the day before Romney’s speech trying to preempt him from talking about his record on the issue, saying that he did not keep institutions in Massachusetts from providing contraceptive coverage. And in an ABC debate last month, Romney was asked whether he believes states have the right to ban contraception -- to which he answered that no state in the country was thinking of doing so.

In his CPAC address, he also outlined a few policies he would enact as president. Two of them might raise eyebrows with some in his party: On Social Security, Romney said he would work to gradually raise the retirement age. And he vowed to “dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce,” promising also that “for the first time ever, we will tie the compensation and benefits of federal workers to those in the private sector. The principle here is simple: Public servants should not get a better deal than the citizens they serve.”