Republicans were quite careful about downplaying the culture war during their national convention last week, but away from the spotlight, the hot-button social issues clearly haven't gone away.
The Campaign for American Values, created in large part by failed Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, is airing this ad in North Carolina.
For those who can't watch clips online, the ad features an anguished woman saying, "Obama is trying to force gay marriage on this country. That's not the change I voted for." A man hears this and agrees, "That's not the change I voted for either."
To remedy the problem, the couple agrees to vote for "someone with values," at which point "Vote Romney/Ryan" appears on screen.
I'm especially fond of the "not the change I voted for" line, as if culture-war voters backed Obama in 2008, but they're now outraged because he supports marriage equality.
For the record, nearly all recent polling shows a majority of the public believes if two consenting adults fall in love and want to get married, they should be able to do so, but the anti-gay message may be more likely to resonate in North Carolina -- the state approved its Amendment 1 by a wide margin in May.