Social Issues

JERUSALEM - An Israeli protester set himself alight during a rally Saturday night marking the anniversary of a wave of demonstrations that swept the country to protest the high cost of living and other social issues, authorities said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man in his 40s poured flammable liquid over himself at a protest in Tel Aviv and set himself on fire. He was later rushed to a hospital, where he was being treated for serious burns, Rosenfeld said. Israel's Channel 10 TV showed footage of the man on fire.

Mitt Romney's small-town bus tour of swing states rolled across Pennsylvania on Saturday, allowing the Republican presidential candidate to campaign as the champion of the middle class in picturesque, everyday American settings. But first Romney dodged a group of about 250 Democratic protesters, led by former Gov. Ed Rendell, by diverting from a scheduled stop at a Quakertown Wawa to another Wawa three miles away. The abrupt schedule change gave a taste of the fight ahead in what is likely to be a close presidential campaign, where every move is contested by one side or the other.

Mitt Romney's small-town bus tour of swing states rolled across Pennsylvania Saturday, allowing the Republican presidential candidate to campaign as the champion of the middle class in picturesque, everyday American settings. Romney dodged a group of about 250 Democratic protesters, led by former Gov. Ed Rendell, by diverting from a scheduled stop at a Quakertown Wawato another Wawa three miles. The abrupt schedule change gave a taste of the fight ahead in what is likely to be a close presidential campaign, where every move is contested by one side or the other.

I probably wasn't the only one who braced for a backlash after the NAACP followed President Obama's lead and came out with a resolution supporting same-sex marriage. How could I not? As a black Christian, I've seen the eye-rolling disapproval among plenty of fellow believers. I've heard the self-righteous vestibule chatter, felt the thick tension in the sanctuary when pastors mention homosexuality from the pulpit — if they dare. I'm not saying African Americans have cornered the market on the gay-marriage debate.

Focusing on wrong issues First, let me say that I couldn't care less whom a person marries. On the list of issues in this country, gay marriage is probably about No. 12,454. Yet it has been on the front page of every newspaper and the lead story on all TV news shows for the last week ("Obama backs same-sex marriage," Thursday). I can understand President Obama wanting it that way, given the $15 trillion debt, the $1.5 trillion annual deficit, the high unemployment rate, a failed strategy in the Middle East, and 50 percent of the population paying no federal income tax in an ever-expanding entitlement society.

RENO, Nev. - The presidential candidates tried to put aside politically risky talk of gay rights Friday and return to Americans' top worry, the economy, in two states critical to the hopes of President Obama and his rival Mitt Romney. Obama discussed how to help homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure in hard-hit Nevada, while Romney was focusing on jobs in North Carolina - more evidence that each views the sluggish economic recovery as the key issue in November's election. For both, it was a day to move past the week's back-and-forth on gay marriage, punctuated by Obama's announcement that he now supports it. Romney, who reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage repeatedly, was distracted by a news report that led him to apologize for decades ago mistreating a high school classmate who was gay. "There are things that we can do right now to help create jobs, to help restore some of the financial security that so many families have lost," Obama told Nevada voters after he met with struggling homeowners.

For 20 years, Republican strategists have advised presidential candidates to steer clear of "controversial" social issues. Favoring a disciplined focus on "pocketbook" priorities to reach upscale suburban voters, that conventional wisdom not only sounds appealing when the economy struggles, but also comes naturally to Mitt Romney, who personifies the party's alleged advantage on economic and fiscal matters. Indeed, Romney is under pressure to name a running mate who reinforces his reputation for businesslike competence.

Now that Rick Santorum, the last plausible alternative to Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential contest, has suspended his campaign, it's worth recalling what another non-Romney Republican, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, had to say about the 2012 election. Daniels turned his state's deficit into a surplus during the recession. While the nation's credit rating was downgraded for the first time, the Hoosier state earned its first ever AAA bond rating from Standard & Poor's under his leadership.

A LOT OF PEOPLE were smiling Tuesday afternoon. People who excel at irony and sarcasm, especially when writing about a certain breed of conservative. People who think that talking about "good" and "evil" as if they were quantitative, tangible things is a sign of mental illness. People who pretend to tolerate differences, but only when those differences don't offend their own personal sense of fairness. When Rick Santorum announced that he was abandoning his campaign at the most sacred site in Pennsylvania, you had the sense that there was joy in newsrooms and campaign headquarters and colleges across the Keystone State.

Most presidential candidates would have brushed aside the young woman's challenge, perhaps mumbling something polite about agreeing to disagree. Not Rick Santorum, on that January afternoon in a hotel ballroom full of college students in Concord, N.H. He was going to convince her (and the entire room) that, no, the inherent right to happiness does not mean society should permit two gay men to marry. "So if you're not happy unless you're married to five other people, is that OK?"