Are Republicans losing the culture wars?

>>> as president i'll protect the sanctity of life , i'll honor the institution of marriage.

>> not only marriage but he offers an example of marriage at its best.

>> that is all we got, the republican convention from the two people on the ticket on marriage. not even, you know -- not even going out and saying one man and one woman which is what george w. bush said in his own convention in 2004 and that language was prevalent in 2008 as well. that to me is a greatest indicator of where things are on this specific issue. stan , the polling on this issue seems to be -- congressman nadler just said it's the most remarkable shift we've seen. that's my sense as well.

>> i'm in awe of it. i've watched it in election after election. i remember in 2004 john kerry , we had bush running on a constitutional amendment on marriage. i wrote, you know, a memo after the election based on a poll that it was one of the issues that cost him maybe even ohio. now you have the president of the united states , you know, supporting marriage equality , a larger majority of the country in favor of it. and you want to understand why the right is concerned about the culture war . they do thing -- and they may be right -- that they're losing the culture war . they're looking at the diversity of the country, they're looking at issues related to marriage, and they see everything at risk and they could be right because the country has gone way beyond it, particularly on marriage.

>> because it's generational. it's not just that we're seeing that generational shift of seeing or approving gay marriage but among the minorities who may be more conservative they're also supporting it. i'm going with the party that does so.

>> it's starting to move.

>> there was a face put to it. there was a point it became political. my mother, my sister, my brother, my cousin. it became a face to someone that loved and wanted to get married.

>> and think that was something very effectively done at the convention. sac wall zack walls, the son of two women who are gay marriage and benita veniz. sandra fluke. it doesn't get any more prominent.

>> and sandra fluke.

>> please, stan , go ahead.

>> it's a real message, but it's also a generational piece and she, i think, was the voice of it because as we said with the -- you know, with hispanics and latinos, that with young people when they look at gay marriage , when they look at climate change, and they look at these issues, they say, who are -- what is this party, the republican party and what they believe. you know, in is about winning young voters back and winning women back but it's also, i think, much bigger and will have enduring effects because you just won't have young people thinking the republican party is relevant to their lives.

>> this is where sandra , you know, to be talking about contraception, to be denied to speak on a panel. all white men talking about birth control and saying it was not relevant that she had an opportunity to speak. this is -- this was for young women , i believe, our anita hill moment. this was a moment --

>> interesting.

>> -- where you said, oh, my god, they're talking about my birth control ? where before we knew in the movement who live and died with this, we knew they were as much about anti-contraception as they were about being anti-choice. and all of it in between.

>> let me respond to that. i want to channel the argument from republicans on this for a second which is the right will say that basically this anti-contraception jihad has been dreamed up by people such as yourself, the democratic party , because they understand the parts of contraception and they want that as a political issue when, in fact, you have one video of rick santorum saying contra sechks is not good and opposition to the one directive coming out of hhs, basically republicans say that's it. and mitt romney says i don't want to talk about it. i'm not going to do anything on contraception as president. how do you respond to that?

>> you have mitt romney talking about supporting a personhood amendment which would not only outlaw birth control and stem cell research a.d they are the ones that went on the attack on contraception. they're the ones who have been talking about an city nation and not allows young people , if you will, to have accurate information and make good decisions about their reproductive health .

>> and they are the ones who made a big deal -- they and the catholic church leadership who made a big deal of religious liberty out of this contraception thing when, in fact, 28% had a --

>> stan ?

>> they're suing the president and they're trying to make it an issue all across the country. they're acting on this. this is like -- romney may not want to talk about it, but the fact that they have this in the platform is part of them acting on it in the congress, acting on it in state legislature , govern governors. this is a real issue in practice. they just don't want to talk about it. so we're absolutely right to note that.

>> co-author with james carville carville, "it's the middle class stupid!"

>> the first lady in chief, that's next. he unexpected happens,