Social issues rule busy campaign day
WASHINGTON – Social issues dominated the presidential race Friday, as President Barack Obama tried to calm a storm over religion and birth control and the Republicans vying to replace him jockeyed to outdo each other in proving their conservative fervor.
There was little time left for talk of jobs and the economy, subjects still expected to dominate the fall election. In that sense, the day’s events may become little more than a footnote.
But Democrats hope the unusually intense focus on social issues, even if temporary, will help them portray Republicans as out of step with middle America on matters such as access to birth control, equal treatment of men and women and government philosophies that put problem-solving ahead of ideological purity.
Three of the four GOP presidential candidates addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference, emphasizing their fealty to activists on the right. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney declared himself “severely conservative.”
That wasn’t enough for former Sen. Rick Santorum, who surprised Republicans by winning this week’s caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota. Even if Romney goes on to defeat Obama this fall, Santorum told the CPAC crowd it would be a “hollow victory” because Romney isn’t conservative enough.
Sandwiched between Santorum’s and Romney’s speeches, Obama announced a much-anticipated change to a rule that would have required religious-affiliated institutions, such as Catholic hospitals, to include birth control in their employee’s health insurance plans. Republican presidential candidates and lawmakers and Catholic bishops denounced that as government infringement on religious rights. Obama said insurance companies, and not religious institutions, can offer contraceptive coverage to the employees at no cost.
To the White House’s relief, major women’s rights groups praised the change, and some Catholic groups withheld strong judgment. Democratic strategists said the day’s dynamics could result in GOP candidates moving so far to the right that the eventual presidential nominee will struggle to woo crucial independent voters in the fall.
“The Republican candidates stand for positions that are far more conservative than the mainstream, and that is not something they can back out of in a general election,” said Jen Psaki, a former Obama aide who has monitored the reaction by women’s groups to the contraception debate.
