Republican convention: For GOP women, social issues take a back seat

Cindy McCain, left, listens to a speech by Ann Romney at the Women for Victory breakfast in Tampa, Fla. About a block from the convention was the Woman Up! Pavilion, sponsored by the Young Guns Network, which promotes conservative candidates. (Max Whittaker, The New York Times)

About a block from the Republican National Convention, in a strip mall next to a Hooters restaurant, is the Woman Up! Pavilion, sponsored by the Young Guns Network, a "super PAC" promoting conservative candidates. Its decor is warm and welcoming, with circular banquettes accented by hot-pink carnations and red roses. There is a hair salon offering blowouts, and a gift shop. Cocktails like the "Lady Lemonade" and "Woman-Tini" are offered for $6.

The pavilion holds a one-room women's suffrage museum and offers forums on topics like "Advocacy Means Business: Building Your Organization" and "The Europeanization of the United States."

What is missing from the all-inclusive spot? Any discussion of the social issues ? abortion,

same-sex marriage, insurance coverage for birth control ? that have at times engulfed the Republican nominating contest.

"We don't talk social issues," said Mary Ann Carter, policy director for the Young Guns Network, who manages the pavilion. "We talk about the economy. We talk about health care. We talk about energy."

This refrain was often heard in and around the convention. In dozens of interviews, women at the convention made clear that social issues are now taking a back seat.

Even those who passionately agree (or disagree) with the new conservative party platform ? calling for traditional marriage, public display of the Ten Commandments and a sweeping ban on abortion ? did not seem to want to discuss the subject. (The one exception was Mitt Romney's sister Jane, who Wednesday declared that if Romney is elected president, a ban on abortion is "never going to happen.")

Instead, women at the convention preferred to point to opening night Tuesday, when a parade of Republican women took to the podium, including Ann Romney, who spoke about her family, and Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina, who preached a gospel of economic empowerment, free of government rules and regulations.

Being visible was one way, Republican women said, to counter the Obama campaign's charge that their party is waging a war on women.

"They're doing the soft love approach," said Sandra Stroman, a convention participant from Chester, S.C. "They're holding up our women in this party and putting those women in front of the cameras, saying, 'Here are our Republican women. Do they look like we have waged war against them?'?"

With the intention of appealing to voters beyond the party's base, many Republican women are simply avoiding the mention of abortion or gay rights because they are seen as too divisive. Some acknowledge playing down their own views as a strategic move. Instead, they want to talk about the economy.

The distancing from social issues is all the more urgent, some conservative women acknowledged, in the aftermath of comments that Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri made two weeks ago, claiming that in cases of "legitimate rape" one need not consider abortion because the female reproductive system shuts itself down.

"Of course it was unhelpful," said Kristen Soltis, a pollster, saying that Democrats have seized the issue to support their contention that Republicans are hostile to women. "I think that because unemployment is so high, Democrats think it's much easier to win over women voters if they talk about these social issues. I think that's a risky gamble for them because I so firmly believe that this will be an election about the economy."

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Source: http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_21438497/republican-convention-gop-women-social-issues-take-back?source=rss

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