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What gets Rep. Michele Bachmann going in the morning?

Repealing Obamacare.

"Obamacare is quite literally the crown jewel of socialism, and repealing it is the driving motivation of my life,'' the Minnesota Republican told thousands of activists Thursday morning, the opening day of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

"The first political breath I take every morning is to repeal Obamacare.''

She added, in a jab at President Obama's alma mater, "Socialism might sell well in a Harvard faculty lounge, but in the real world, not so much.''

The three-term House member was at the front of a procession of potential presidential candidates auditioning for the crowd at the three-day event. Derided by her critics as a lightweight, Bachmann showed she knows how to play to the crowd, slinging pointed one-liners and offering to buy each person in the heavily college-aged audience a drink.

"The bar tab is mine!'' she said, inviting the crowd to her 5:30 p.m. reception, following a roll call of newly elected Republicans across the country.

Bachmann didn't mention her recent trip to early-voting Iowa but did reference her ill-received and parodied response to the State of the Union address in which she was looking off camera the whole time.

"Someone told me I needed to find the right camera,'' she joked. "All you (Saturday Night Live) fans, I think we're good to go.''

Bachmann sought to unite the cross-section of fiscal, social and military conservatives in the room by addressing each constituency and assuring them, "I am one of you.''

But practically all of her speech amounted to a tirade against the "stunning level of debt'' the U.S. is carrying.

"His name is President Hu, and with all the money we owe China we might rightly say, 'Hu's your daddy,' ''she quipped.

"Then there's this monstrosity called Obamacare,'' drawing a mild round of boos. "This is a law that will never end. It will grow, and grow and grow.''