bureau chief for mother jones magazine, columnist for dailypolitics.com, and author of the new book showdown. gentleman, great to have you with us tonight. great to be here. bob, let me ask you, this is another reason for social conservatives not to want obama, no matter how much they like mitt romney. your thoughts? they weren t beginning to vote for obama anyway. look, the fact of the matter is that these folks, anybody for whom this is a single litmus test issue that s going to decide their vote, probably isn t comfortable with having an african-american president in the first place. and they weren t going to vote for obama. i think your demographics are exactly right. we ve come a long way since even 2004, when actually i wrote senator kerry s statement opposing a constitutional amendment to ban equality. that was used as a lever. i think we re in a completely different world now. and if you listen to the tone of
generally turned in president obama s favor. overall, 53% of americans support marriage equality, including 59% of independents. younger voters overwhelmingly support it while older voters do not. let s turn to bob shrum, democratic strategist and professor at new york university, and david corn, d.c. bureau chief for mother jones magazine, columnist for dailypolitics.com, and author of the new book showdown. gentleman, great to have you with us tonight. great to be here. bob, let me ask you, this is another reason for social conservatives not to want obama, no matter how much they like mitt romney. your thoughts? they weren t beginning to vote for obama anyway. look, the fact of the matter is that these folks, anybody for whom this is a single litmus test issue that s going to decide their vote, probably isn t comfortable with having an african-american president in the first place. and they weren t going to vote for obama. i think your demographics are exactly right. we ve co
magazine, columnist for dailypolitics.com, and author of the new book showdown. gentleman, great to have you with us tonight. great to be here. bob, let me ask you, this is another reason for social conservatives not to want obama, no matter how much they like mitt romney. your thoughts? they weren t beginning to vote for obama anyway. look, the fact of the matter is that these folks, anybody for whom this is a single litmus test issue that s going to decide their vote, probably isn t comfortable with having an african-american president in the first place. and they weren t going to vote for obama. i think your demographics are exactly right. we ve come a long way since even 2004, when actually i wrote senator kerry s statement opposing a constitutional amendment to ban equality. that was used as a lever. i think we re in a completely different world now. and if you listen to the tone of romney there, he was trying to be very careful. he wants the advantage of having
the supreme court always had a role in presidential election year politics. it s about who might retire and what kind of judges a presidential candidate might be expected to pick. it s about the litmus test issue of abortion. how important would it be and how much historical precedent would it be if it weren t just who might i appoint to the court but if the specific actions and specific decisions by the supreme court itself essentially got cut on trial in the presidential race. joining us tonight for some perspective is nbc news historian. thank you for being here. thank you. am i allowed to be promoted to michael? yes. thank you. are there historical precedents of presidents putting the supreme court in the middle of their election campaign in.
judicial restraint. a group of people would somehow overturn aduly constituted law. the supreme court always had a role in presidential election year politics. it s about who might retire and what kind of judges a presidential candidate might be expected to pick. it s about the litmus test issue of abortion. how important would it be and how much historical precedent would it be if it weren t just who might i appoint to the court but if the specific actions and specific decisions by the supreme court itself essentially got cut on trial in the presidential race. joining us tonight for some perspective is nbc news historian. thank you for being here. thank you. am i allowed to be promoted to michael? yes. thank you. are there historical precedents of presidents putting