[JediJones]

And this is why those in the GOP are so wrong who don't want to run on "social issues" or who think supporting real marriage and the pro-life cause are losing issues for the party. I think even they're not stupid enough to believe these are losing issues. They simply like gay marriage and abortion, and will try to make the party support those liberal causes even if it means risking losing elections by suppressing the kind of massive turnout we saw at CFA.

[scottjewell]

I’ve always wondered what it was that made them distance themselves from social issues.

You’re right that they aren’t stupid enough to believe these are losing issues - but I wonder if it’s so much that they are pro-abortion and SSM, or if they think they have to get in with the “new elite class” of young urban republicans and libertarians. Thus do they feel they must distance themselves from the “hoakey, white-bread religious folks” and that is insulting and divisive. I think Romney’s lukewarmness reflects this.