A few thoughts about the FRC, not actually being there myself:

First, the continued accumulation of prominent social-conservative leaders is impressive. As I said last week, after noting the implicit rejection of Huckabee by Gary Bauer and Tony Perkins:

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a general consensus among social conservative leaders after the Values Voter Summit next week.

Sounds almost prescient now, don't you think? While I don't have the power to see the future (or any insider knowledge from the campaign), it very much seems to be playing out that way. The list of prominent social conservative leaders who have openly endorsed Romney is growing by the day.

Second, Romney’s speech at the FRC tonight has been getting previewed a little. It’s topic? Families. I think this is a good topic for Romney. His record in Massachusetts is beyond reproach in fighting against re-definition of marriage. The topic also speaks to a broader array of issues than abortion alone does. Marriage and family not only serve as the social basis of society, but in our modern society, serves as the distinguishing economic difference between the poor and the wealthy. Thus, in a social sense, Romney can talk about values and problems like abortion that often stem from poor familial relationships (either between the two parents or between parents and children in the case of minor pregnancies). The topic of families also allows Romney to talk about the best way to lift people out of poverty; not by entitlement programs, but by increasing marriages and decreasing divorces.

Of course highlighting the topic that distinguishes the personal lives of the candidates is not a bad one either.

Third, it is also important to remember that Romney is not just the candidate of choice for social conservative leaders because of his stance on traditional values issues. Last week, the issue that turned off Bauer and Perkins from Huckabee was Huckabee’s statements about Iran. This is a far cry from abortion or gay marriage. Likewise, McCain and Thompson get downgraded because of their stance on free speech in McCain-Feingold(-Thompson?). Romney’s entire platform is what these people are endorsing. They like his stance on Iran. They like his stance on the first amendment. I wouldn’t be surprised if he also got points for his stance on immigration or economic issues.

Labels: family values