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I saw Santorum hammered David Gregory this last Sunday on Meet the Press for focusing on social issues.  And I also know that the strategy of the liberal media is to distract from Obama's disastrous performance on the economy and foreign policy by trying to create controversy on these social issues by misrepresenting conservatives.

But I don't think conservatives need to be worried about the issues coming up at all.  I think it works for them.  For all the talk about how social issues aren't that important and how people don't want to hear about them, I was thrilled to see that talk radio king Rush Limbaugh waded into the territory at the end of last week.  Obviously teaching during the day during his show, I don't get a chance to listen, and hear about things a little bit later than those who can.  But on Friday's show Rush apparently referred to Obama's astonishing support of infanticide when he was in the Illinois legislature as, "the most shocking and underreported significant story I can ever remember."

And that's exactly right.  I kinda chuckle to myself every time someone tells me that I spend too much time on social issues.  You know who that usually is that tells me that?  People that don't agree with me on social issues.  Now, think about what that says.  It says that they have taken the time to write to me to counsel me on what I should talk about because they're motivated, they're passionate about something that I've discussed.  Is that not exactly why I talk about these issues?

People are passionate about them, and they should be.  The questions that go to the heart of who we are as human beings, and in a larger sense, what we are as a people should always be front and center.  The issue of life and death is the single most important issue that there is.  We all know that's the case.

And there's two groups of people that really want us conservatives to shut up about social issues.  First, you've got the Republicans who are fearful that social issues are too divisive and they just want conservatives - and particularly the church - to shut up about them.  Just be quiet and let the culture go down the crapper.  They're the "if you don't like abortion, don't have one" people.  There's another word for them.  Cowards.  These are the people driving their buggies around in slave days that said, "If you don't like slavery, don't own one."  I have little use for those who know something to be wrong, but who don't want to expend the energy to confront it.

Then the other group that wants conservatives to shut up about social issues is the Democrats who know they are the Party of Death, who know they are the party that stands against the Declaration of Independence, who know they are the party that supports the breakdown of society's backbone - the nuclear family.  They don't want that discussed.  And why?  Because they know in their hearts they're wrong and they don't want to be called on it.  They know that the vast majority of the country is not in line with their radical platform, and that they lose votes if these issues become front and center.

All this talk about how a social conservative can't win the presidency.  It's hogwash.  Tell me, who was the last social liberal who campaigned as a social liberal who won the presidency?  That's exactly what Rush is saying about this Obama infanticide thing.  It was not reported.  Why wasn't it?  Because Obama's position was and is so radically out of step with the mainstream he would have looked like a monster.

Gingrich said it best in the debate:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich raised the issue of Obama's support for infanticide after CNN debate moderator John King asked the presidential hopefuls a question about birth control.

 

The question met with loud audience disapproval, as it was widely interpreted as intended to embarrass Rick Santorum.

 

Gingrich, who replied first, objected that in 2008, "not once did anybody in the elite media ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide."

 

"If we're going to have a debate about who the extremist is on these issues, it is President Obama who, as a state senator, voted to protect doctors who killed babies who survived the abortion," Gingrich said. "It is not the Republicans."

Newt's points is spot on.  He's saying: all this talk about extreme views on the right about birth control and abortion and all that is nonsense.  You want extreme?  Look at the guy who is the sitting president who said repeatedly with his position on the Born Alive Act that little babies, delivered alive following a failed abortion did not deserve life-saving treatment.  Look at the guy who said he had no desire to make it illegal for hospitals to let these kids suffer and die in a room alone.  That's extreme.