Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a putative candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has flipped and flopped on the question of whether his party should give high priority to political fights over such hot-button social issues as abortion and gay marriage.
In so doing, Daniels has aroused the ire of die-hard cultural warriors, which seemingly does his presidential aspirations no good. You see, the thing to remember is that GOP primary voters are more socially conservative than their party’s rank-and-file, not to mention the general populace. To these zealots, social issues are foremost.
There’s more on this HERE.
Campaigning on conservative social issues is a sure way to lose. People, in general, really don’t care about gay marriage, etc. Couple that with poor fiscal performance, as we saw from 2004 – 2006, and you get results like 2006 and 2008. Republicans would be well served to be true conservatives (classic liberals) and avoid cultural agendas. Alas, I don’t think they can keep their hands out of the cookie jar.