Avoid social issues. It wasn’t Republicans who made birth control and abortion free. Not to mention libertarians sat on their prissy hands.
Yes, but there are a lot of Republicans that do want to have social issue fights on long settled matters. Santorum got a lot of primary votes and he said as President he would have raised the issue of contraception and explained why it was "not okay".
Much as I don't like Huntsman, he does make a good point. Balance the budget and stay out of people's lives is a winning message - and I suspect it is the general direction the party will go.