Turns out the Republican candidates have found a conservative pledge they're not willing to make:
In a year when pledges have become all the rage for Republican presidential primary candidates, The Family Leader’s Marriage Vow seems to be falling flat.
The pledge is causing more problems for the two candidates who have signed than for those who have refused, giving an opening to complaints that the conservative Christian group may have tried to go too far.
The 14-point vow asks each candidate to pledge “personal fidelity” to his or her spouse, to remove female soldiers from combat roles and to recognize that “robust childbearing and reproduction” maintains America’s health and security. It also calls for acknowledgment that “children raised by a mother and a father experience better learning, less addiction, less legal trouble and less extramarital pregnancy.” And it requires those who sign it to fight prostitution, pornography and Sharia law.
The "Marriage Vow" ran into problems early on, mostly because of its apparently encompassing attempt to be irritating and controversial for no good purpose. The language suggesting black children were better off under slavery was taken out. The stuff about pornography, hemmed and hawed on. And it was made clear from the outset, for the benefit of candidates like Newt Gingrich, that the stuff about pledging fidelity to your spouse was meant to be only on a going-forward basis.
As it stands now, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Gingrich, Ron Paul and Gary Johnson are all taking a pass. The reasons seem clear enough: the pledge might help build credibility with ultra-conservatives, but would likely be poison in the general election. Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum signed it happily (Bachmann even signed on before the slavery language was removed, so you know she's hardcore on this stuff, right?) Everyone else, though, is wary of penning their names to this particular bit of social-issue warfare. Are you really going to come out, during a debate with the president, and explain that you don't think women should be soldiers but that they should instead be concentrating on "robust childbearing"? Good luck with that one.
In general, pledges are dubious bits of political theater. This one, though, veered heavily into the realm of demanding conservative Christian Sharia, all under the banner of, you know, avoiding Sharia and stuff. Hopefully its apparent failure will make other organizations think twice about demanding such nonsense.