It seems that Robertson did something savvy: he didn’t oversell on the social issues. Most Republican voters in the primary aren’t going to vote FOR Rudy because of his stance on social issues; they are going to vote for him for other reasons like competence, leadership, terrorism and economics. Robertson’s argument seemed to track this, arguing that Rudy is the best one to go after the Islamic terrorists and that at least Robertson can live with him on social issues because of Rudy’s pledge on judges. Some won’t buy it, some will but if Rudy is nominated social conservatives can certainly claim that he did it with some of their support and not in spite of them.
