OXON HILL, Md. — The first “people” I recognized on arriving at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington were two “stormtroopers” and a Wookiee from the 1977 film “Star Wars.”

Some of the speeches also expressed sentiments from the past, though not as cleverly as those in costume: President Obama is a bad president, even a bad man. America looks weak before the world. Government is too big and taxes too high. “The Force” seemed to have left the building, or perhaps it never arrived.