Posted on 03/04/2012 1:43:38 PM PST by SmithL
Once deeply vulnerable, President Barack Obama has seen his fortunes take a dramatic turn for the better as the Republican Party splits between its historic business-friendly establishment and the powerful tug of more conservative and social issues voters.
Burdened throughout his term by the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression, Obama was expected to be hard pressed to hold on the White House in November.
But eight months before Election Day, things have changed. That's partly because the economy is finally showing signs of a sustained recovery.
But the new wind at Obama's back blowing just as powerfully is the GOP nominating fight, which is dragging Republican candidates deep into conservative fights over social issues — territory from which may be hard for the final GOP nominee to escape.
With divisive social issues dominating their nominating contest, will the Republicans be able to eventually win over the non-ideological independent voters deemed critical in this fall's election?
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and once politically moderate multimillionaire venture capitalist, remains the Republican front-runner ahead of the Super Tuesday voting in 10 states, which will allocate 419 delegates to the party convention in late August. Romney is well ahead in the battle for the 1,144 needed to capture the nomination.
But Romney has been repeatedly knocked off his economic message, especially by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum who is courting the most motivated Republican voters: the low-tax, small government tea party wing of the party and evangelical Christians who are profoundly attracted to his stands against abortion and contraception and on other social issues.
Many conservative Republicans don't trust Romney and his moderate past. But he has, so far, been able to ride out that aversion because Santorum has had to split the anti-Romney vote with rival Newt Gingrich.
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
That must be sme pretty strong stuff that this guy’s smoking. Wow, it’s like the Twilight Zone.
Off the top of my head, I don’t recall any Presidential election during my life where the media did not write this same article over and over.
It is a staple for every election.
Ah, another WH press release posing as ‘analysis’ from an AP hack.
"That sounds like a social issues question. To tell you the truth, in 2012 I'm not sure anyone expect the media wants to talk about social issues. Here's what I have to say about the Keystone oil pipeline ..."
“With divisive social issues dominating their nominating contest, will the Republicans be able to eventually win over the non-ideological independent voters deemed critical in this fall’s election?”
IF “independent voters” are inclined to vote for the failed Obama administration because many Republicans do care about the “social issues” - then so be it. If a GOP nominee is not right of social issues, he/she won’t get the rest of it right either. Social issues DO matter, and those that think otherwise are NOT true conservatives. True conservatism has three legs: National Defense, Economic, and Social. Without all three, the candidate is out of balance. Obviously, each leg’s relative importance to the “conservative” will not be the same....but ALL true conservatives will be, more or less, conservative in all three legs. The “mushy middle” is a losing proposition.
This takes conventional “wisdom” to a whole new depth, conventional “propaganda talking points” — based on nothing more than wishful thinking.
If only we would all become liberals and nominate Nancy Pelosi we could win.
"That sounds like a social issues question. To tell you the truth, in 2012 I'm not sure anyone expect the media wants to talk about social issues. Here's what I have to say about the Keystone oil pipeline ..."
LOL. Love it!
The media always tries to convince us of the same thing.
Oh no! We’ll lose Bill Gates and Warren Buffett! Oh, that’s right, most of the billionaires are already Democrat. Geez, how can working people vote Democrat?
ssssssssatan speaks.
LLS
AMEN
Horsecrap. Most people are conservatives and agree with them on social issues. But hey, when you are an AP writer and you president had THE MOST liberal voting record in the entire US Senate, your perspective tends to be a little skewed. I mean, they think Obama is a moderate, for heaven’s sake.
I just wish Rush and a bunch of other rich conservatives would fight back with conservative tv news stations and newspapers (even as they are dying). We don’t fight.
Bull crap. That is a damned lie (and I used that word advisedly; that lie is straight from the forces of Ba'al). Associated Press should be shut down for this kind of political contribution to Obama.
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