By Laura Ingraham

Lots of interesting speakers at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington including a few Republicans who may need to do some reputation rehab with the base.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie whose star has fallen since bridge gate gave a terrific speech mostly on the economy and was well-received.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio once considered a darling of the Tea Party before, that is, he fronted the Senate's immigration reform bill he chose to focus on foreign policy in his address.

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SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: There is only one nation on earth capable of rallying and bringing together the free people on this planet to stand up to the threat of totalitarianism. There is only one nation on earth that can do that and that is ours.

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INGRAHAM: With Russia flexing its military muscle in the Ukraine, Rubio believes that conservatives will forget their immigration irritation with him because of his muscular, more aggressive stance on foreign policy.

I think this is a serious miscalculation. According to a recent "New York Times"/CBS News poll only 34 percent of Republicans say that the United States should take the leading role among all countries in trying to solve international conflicts.

By the way, that's a 24 percent drop from when the same question was asked soon after the start of the Iraq war. And January's Gallup poll also shows us that the people think the government's number one priority should be jobs and the economy.

Translation -- the GOP electorate and a strong majority of Americans have concluded that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars probably made us weaker, not stronger. Overwhelmingly Americans support and respect our military. They are not isolationists but they also want our attention and our money focused on the home front.

Remember when the American people rose up against that idea of intervention in Syria last year? If Rubio isn't careful, he will follow in the footsteps of John McCain who also staked his candidacy on a neoconservative, really muscular foreign policy. Of course, McCain was roundly rejected by the voters for a man with zero foreign policy experience and who voted against the Iraq war.

Today, according to the Public Policy Polling outfit, McCain is the most unpopular senator in the United States. Perhaps that's because people equate him with more military intervention.

I think what most of us want is what George W. Bush initially promised -- a more humble foreign policy that focuses strictly on America's national interest. Just as they were in 2008, the voters are more receptive to politicians fighting to raise the standard of living for Americans more so than in defending other country's sovereignty including that of Ukraine.

And that's "The Memo."

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