Trumpeting “faith, family and freedom”, the Religious Right has arrived in Washington convinced that the ascending star of Sarah Palin signifies a Republican presidential campaign created in their own image.

The annual Values Voter Summit gathers together many of the socially conservative leaders once dismissed by John McCain as “agents of intolerance” and who, just 12 months ago, might well have cost him the Republican nomination.

Last year’s meeting was addressed by no less than nine Republican runners and, in a later straw poll, Mr McCain finished last with support from a mere 1.4 per cent. Yesterday the mood could not have been more different at the Washington Hilton where the conference, organised by the Family Research Council, was being held with “McCain 08” badges being sold briskly in the lobby.

Asked how religious conservatives could make such an abrupt swing towards Mr McCain, the antiabortion campaigner David Daleiden replied: “I can sum it up in two words: ‘Sarah Palin’.” A fellow activist explained: “It was important for McCain to pick someone trustworthy – he put his money where his mouth was.”

Having secured this base, however, the Republican leadership is showing signs of taking it for granted. Only one of the nine presidential candidates who addressed them last year is making a return appearance – Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor who is already said to be eyeing another White House run in 2012.

Times Recommends

• No apology for Germany’s own Nazi victims
• Intricate web of fear and hope tying down deal
• Victims remembered a year after Mumbai attacks