which is, you know, we do have this new emergent population. how do we integrate them? how do we make them part? i don t want us to have a separate but equal institution of civil unions, and that was the big threat. and then bush, when he actually endorsed a federal marriage amendment, suddenly the entire gay establishment were like, okay, we re with you. it was like if bush is against it, we were for it. yes, bush i would like to say that my arguments or whatever, evans brilliant strategy really persuaded the gay community. but no, i thin george bush by endorsing the most unbelievably draconian, to actually write us out of equality in the constitution itself, unprecedented attack on an minority, galvanized everybody around this issue. do you worry that there will be a right-wing backlash of the kind that roe v. wade produced for the next decade or two?
have to keep on that march of progress, and we ve come a long way even remember the 2004 election where state by state every state we went through we were dealing with anti-gay marriage battle initiatives. where one bill clinton allegedly told your then boss john kerry to support a federal marriage amendment, something that does not make it into his op etd ed. i was reading about the contemporaneous when the house passed the doma bill, a white house spokesperson whose name i didn t see in the story denounced it as gay-baiting. the president signed it anyway. that went to show his heart may have been in one place, and politically he was he was scared to be out of set with his constituents. thus he ties it up in a bow for us. we have to leave it there. thank you for joining us. as you teased at the top of the segment, you will be talking about this tomorrow. yep. so we are all tuning in tomorrow and every weekend right here on msnbc. 8:00 a.m. eastern. up with chris hay
romney tacticians today to your point about how hot a campaignish shaw this used to be for republicans. chuck todd asked ed gillespie is this a campaign issue for you guys. let s listen to this. i think it is an important issue issue for people. strong feelings on both sides. he will actively push for a constitutional amendment. his view is given the nature of the states sanctions gay marriage and the clause in the constitution and a federal marriage amendment should be enacted. alex, they don t sound too eager about it. the climate in america is one of acceptance of gay marriage. the problem for the republican is a host of different issue pps at the state level people don t want to let this guy. if north carolina hasn t proposed amendment one there would be a lotless mag anytism to the issue of gay marriage.
pattern on this, you know, it s one that in the past has shown itself to be the opposition to gay marriage that has prevailed. so he will actively push for a constitutional amendment? his view is that, given the nature of states sanctioning gay marriage and the full faith and credit clause, federal marriage amendment should be enacted. but i think the truth is, when you look at this election, chuck, i think most people are focused on jobs and the economy and the cost of energy and the health care, the impact of the obamacare bill. i m not diminishing that it s not an important issue but the most important issue that you have that voters are talking about. the clarity here is that the president has for the state to decide and mitt romney is not? when it comes to marriage. they are reversed when it comes to what they want the federal government to well, sides of the same-sex
listen, give me a sense of your reaction this morning after hearing president obama s announcement. well, i m still elated and filled with emotion, what president obama did yesterday was so courageous because, as you know, other past presidents and vice presidents have come out in favor of marriage equality for gay people, but president obama did it while he s still in office and while there s still some might consider a risk to his future presidency, re-election but it was incredibly fantastic for 14 and 15-year-old kids to hear the president of the united states say to them that they are entitled to be with the person that they love. that there is not going to be a hole in their life, that he supports them regardless of what their parents might say, regardless of what their church might say. he supports who they are as a full human being. well, he also said, mitchell, he believes that the issue should be decided state by state which really isn t going as far as potent