Here’s how it is for socially conservative Republican politicians.
If they broach the topic of abortion, liberals howl, “It’s the economy, stupid!” and proclaim them obsessed with divisive social issues.
And if they focus on fiscal issues, the media asks them questions about social issues and proclaim them obsessed anyway.
Now we have Barack Obama sinking in the polls only after making gay marriage, free contraception, and “choice” the centerpieces of his campaign, and the media doesn’t notice. It cannot be that a Democrat could possibly suffer politically by focusing on social issues. This narrative is resolved solely for Republicans.
The latest example of Obama’s preoccupation with social issues is a two-minute video featuring Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards (who’s looking a little weathered), posted at BarackObama.com/Women on May 17…
Before that, as documented by LiveAction.org’s David Schmidt on May 4, the Obama campaign began running web ads aimed at supporters of “choice”…
The barackobama.com/stand-for-women site is already gone, presumably replaced by barackobama.com/women.
At the new site you can get a free Women for Obama bumper sticker, but only if you’re a woman who believes in the “right to choose.”
But where’s the media? As I wrote last week, Obama has been bombing in the polls among women ever since he started trying to attract them to himself via supposed women’s issues, including cradle-to-grave government patriarchy.
This is a story. But it’s not.
It is also a story that President Obama would cut an advocacy video for Planned Parenthood Action Fund when Planned Parenthood is under federal investigation. It’s like making a video to support Solyndra.
It’s a story that President Obama would cut a video for that political action committee in the White House and with “www.WHITEHOUSE.gov” at the end – an official presidential video. Had President Bush done the same for the Susan B. Anthony List, would the media not have noticed?
Would the media not notice if Mitt Romney suddenly decided to make the pro-life and marriage issues the focal point of his campaign – and immediately sank in the polls?
Nevertheless, it’s still a fact.
So Cecile, keep making those videos.
