Politics And Social Conservatism

Daniel Larison points out an entertaining fact about Mark Sanford's Republican primary victory in South Carolina:

Sanford’s victory doesn’t tell us much about social conservatism in South Carolina one way or the other. Let’s recall that Newt Gingrich of all people won the South Carolina primary last year, and he ran strongest among those that identified as “very conservative”, took 45% of the evangelical vote, and received 46% of those that said the religious beliefs of a candidate were very or somewhat important. Evidently, there are a lot of “very conservative” South Carolinian Republicans that don’t judge candidates on their record of marital fidelity. According to the same CNN exit poll, evangelicals made up 64% of the 2012 primary electorate, and 64% was the same figure of voters that said that abortion should be mostly or always illegal. This is not a Republican state electorate that is likely to stop holding socially conservative views anytime soon.

Good point.  Newt Gingrich is not the poster child for "'til death do us part."  As the John Avalon quote he highlights points out, at least Sanford has been humbled by his infidelity.  Newt, not so much.  Newt's never been humbled by any of the awful things he's done.