SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES DOING THEIR BEST TO ASSURE OBAMA VICTORY

The social conservatives in the Republican Party are doing their best to assure an Obama victory this coming November. They have managed to alienate women voters and are driving independents into the Obama camp. If Obama wins it will be because they snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory.

First, the social conservatives interjected contraceptives and other women’s issues into the campaign. Romney badly needed the women’s vote to win and, because of the social conservatives’ tomfoolery, that vote probably won’t be his anymore.

And now the family values wing of the Republican Party has attacked Romney’s national security spokesman because he was openly gay. Richard Grenell was highly experienced and very well qualified for this position. His resignation under pressure from the social conservatives will probably drive more independents into the Obama camp.

Whatever happened to ‘It’s the economy, stupid’? Thanks to the social conservatives, that winning issue has been put on the back burner. I am sure Romney will try his best to focus on the economy, but I predict that the anti-abortion, anti-contraceptives and anti-gay bedrock wing of the party will continue to derail his efforts to steer away from those divisive issues.

Without the independents and the women’s vote, Romney is a dead duck.

GAY AIDE TO ROMNEY QUITS AMID ‘HYPER’ PARTISANSHIP
By Catalina Camia

USA TODAY
May 1, 2012

Richard Grenell, an openly gay foreign policy spokesman for Mitt Romney, resigned today because of what he called a "hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues."

Grenell's employment by the Romney presidential campaign had been attacked by conservatives such as Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. Fischer wrote that Grenell's hiring was a "deliberate poke in the eye to the pro-family community."

Grenell had also come under fire for tweets about prominent women such as MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Callista Gingrich and Michelle Obama.

In a statement issued to The Washington Post's Right Turn blog, Grenell thanked Romney for his support and "his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team." He made clear that leaving the Romney campaign was his own choice.

Romney campaign manager Matt Rhodes said in a statement that the presumptive GOP nominee's team was "disappointed that Ric decided to resign from the campaign for his own personal reasons. We wanted him to stay because he had superior qualifications for the position he was hired to fill."

Here's Grenell's full statement: “I have decided to resign from the Romney campaign as the Foreign Policy and National Security Spokesman. While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama's foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team.”

Grenell was a spokesman for President George W. Bush at the United Nations and also worked for Republicans such as former New York governor George Pataki.