WASHINGTON As some Republican leaders wring their hands at the prospect of a drawn-out nominating contest, many of the 10,000 people attending the Conservative Political Action Conference here did not seem too concerned about that possibility.

The Republican nominee, it seemed, mattered less in their efforts to mobilize than their intense dislike of President Barack Obama. In dozens of interviews at the conference, which was to end Saturday afternoon, people expressed preferences for Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum or, less often, Newt Gingrich or the absent Ron Paul. But every one of them said the same thing, often in the same words: "Anybody but Obama."

Or, as Robert Kitchens, a retiree from Houston, put it, "I'm interested in saving the country."

The Obama administration's clash last week with religious leaders over insurance coverage of contraception only magnified the sense of outrage.

In a speech, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and a Baptist minister, pounded on what he called a severe threat to religious freedom and the First Amendment.

"Thanks to President Obama, we are all Catholics now," he said, evoking John F. Kennedy's famous declaration in Berlin. Huckabee criticized those who said that issues like abortion should take a back seat to economics in the election, drawing cheers when he said that the Obama administration "is more interested in protecting a lizard than a human life."

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said that while the president had not actually tried to reign in gun ownership yet, "he's hiding his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment in his second term."

"We're on the brink of seeing our freedom destroyed," LaPierre said.

The conference known as CPAC, which is sponsored by the American Conservative Union, is the largest annual gathering of conservatives, a political festival intended to lay out battle themes for the movement.

With high hopes of winning the presidential election, and with the leading Republican candidates vying for conservatives' allegiance, this year's event had an unusual excitement. A Rick Santorum booth in the exhibition hall had sold 250 navy blue sweater vests by Friday night.

The appearances by Santorum, Romney and Gingrich were highlights, and if the candidates did not each gain new supporters, they seemed to reassure many people that any of the three, including Mitt Romney, whose authenticity has been questioned, would carry their torch.