SALON

Friday, Jun 1, 2012 7:49 AM UTC

GOP stands down on social issues, focuses on jobs

By

Topics: From the Wires,

GOP stands down on social issues, focuses on jobsHouse Speaker John Boehner of Ohio meets with reporters following a GOP strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 31, 2012. Republicans stung by the culture wars that dominated political discourse this year are standing down on social issues. They are acutely aware that the presidential and congressional elections five months off are expected to turn on a thin margin of independent voters neither party can afford to alienate. Boehner vowed to reverse President Barack Obama’s birth control policy. But there’s no sign of any such legislation. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (Credit: AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans stung by the culture wars that dominated political discourse this year are standing down on social issues. They are acutely aware that the presidential and congressional elections five months off are expected to turn on a thin margin of independent voters neither party can afford to alienate.

House Speaker John Boehner vowed to reverse President Barack Obama’s birth control policy. But there’s no sign of any such legislation.

And how about Obama’s revelation that he supports gay marriage? Social conservatives at the core of the GOP have turned back to assailing the president’s stewardship of the economy.

There’s a growing sense among Republicans that, with Mitt Romney all but crowned as their presidential nominee, social issues generally are losers when the GOP is trying to appeal to swing voters.

More Laurie Kellman.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations