The Politico’s CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN and SEUNG MIN KIM have a breathless piece up featuring that headline, minus the “bummer.” They opine
President Barack Obama’s embrace of same-sex marriage was viewed for so long as such a risky move that operatives in both parties expected it to drop like a bomb, handing Republicans a powerful wedge issue in an election year.
Instead, it’s landed like a feather.
Top Republican officeholders went out of their way Thursday to try to shift the conversation back to the economy. The GOP’s House and Senate campaign committees practically ignored it. And prominent Republican strategists are warning the party to steer clear of it.
The early calculation by Republicans is that it’s not worth diverting attention from the economy, which remains Obama’s biggest weakness, and that an intense focus on gay marriage may actually further alienate women and younger voters who were turned off by the GOP’s focus earlier this year on limiting access to birth control.
“This election is all about jobs, the economy, spending and the debt,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who advised former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign. “The president’s decision is not going to change that fundamental foundation. It might make a difference at the margins, especially in culturally conservative states and among cultural conservatives. But it just is not where voters are.”
In other words, the GOP just doesn’t care about the issue. Like Obama, they probably feel like it is a State’s rights issue. And they plan on focusing on the economy. Gay marriage will not take this country off a cliff ala Greece. But, they economic policies of the Obama admin. will.
3 comments:
Let the voters decide. GOP is focused on the economy not gay marriage.
Turning the tables on the Republicans during Bushs election gay marriage was all they wanted to talk about.
When? Gay marriage is a side issue that is secondary to the economy and over all state of the union. Once again democrats position themselves where they say they support something yet don't do anything about it.
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