“As president, I will stand for a path to legal status for anyone who is willing to stand up and defend this great nation through military service,” he told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials convention in June. “Those who’ve risked their lives in defense of America have earned their right to make their life in America.”

Earlier this month, he began attacking Obama on welfare, accusing him of gutting key elements of the bipartisan 1996 overhaul of the welfare system and creating a “culture of dependency” by allowing waivers for states for welfare work requirements.

The Obama White House and former President Bill Clinton, who signed the 1996 law, called the Romney camp’s claim false.

Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich drew raves from conservatives in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina when they addressed welfare and other entitlement programs during the Republican primary race. Romney’s campaign has used Gingrich and Santorum, both popular with the party base, as surrogates to criticize Obama on welfare.

“Romney’s welfare attack will certainly be welcome red meat for the base,” McKinnon said.

Still, several nervous conservatives are looking for more signals from Romney that he won’t go wobbly on them this fall.

Craig Robinson, editor of TheIowaRepublican.com political news Website, said Romney wasted a chance to send a strong signal to the Republican base by not firmly weighing in on the controversy over comments by Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy that his restaurant chain is “very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee launched a “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” earlier this month and implored people to eat at the restaurants to show their support for Cathy.

Huckabee, Santorum, Gingrich and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made comments supportive of Cathy. Romney demurred, saying, “I’m not going to tell other people what to talk about.”

Gingrich believes Romney would benefit by engaging on the issue.

“I certainly think that the Romney campaign would be smart to serve Chick-fil-A at the convention for one occasion,” Gingrich told the conservative Website Newsmax earlier this month. “I think that would send a pretty clear signal to people without having done very much except to make it happen.”