Conservatives told they won't win the White House

Republicans have little chance of defeating President Obama this year and may be better off focusing their efforts on state and congressional elections in November, thousands of conservative activists were told as they kicked off a three-day conference in D.C. Thursday.

“Republicans have dropped the ball on telling the story about Barack Obama,” said Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com, an influential conservative blog. “I hate to be pessimistic about an election we should win, but it seems like we are setting ourselves up to lose if the economy improves.”