90s, when you now have the mainstream position is to support marriage equality. that s a huge leap in a short amount of time. the president should be applauded. his evolution of personal beliefs is very important. but there is still a lot of work to be done in translating personal beliefs in the public policy this is now 30 states, ban gay marriage, the president said it s a states rights issue. there is still room to push him. and i think all credit should be given to the ljbt activist community. they were ferocious and kept the pressure on. i want to read something that was posted, who worked for president obama a long time on these issues. wow, this is an important moment in civil rights history. it s also an important moment in political history in which the lesson for the gay community and perhaps for anyone advocating for change is that words are
i remember being in the oval office in 1993, in the first year of bill clinton. i remember asking him what he thought he would be remembered for? lifting the ban on gays in the military and health care. this is a sea change on where america is. and it s a big deal as biden would say. and dorian, in that clinton white house in 1996, the president signed the defense of marriage act, which, by the way, was relatively noncontroversial, it passed the senate with 85 votes, only 14 democrats voting against it, the president was basically if he hadn t signed it, they could have overwritten his veto that s what the last democratic president did. we re a long way from the mid 90s, when you now have the mainstream position is to support marriage equality. that s a huge leap in a short amount of time.
the bush economic doctrines that brought us into the recession. and when it comes to the other cultural issues, the president is in a mainstream position here in terms of what he believes on issues as basic as women s health care and rights of privacy that americans really value in this country. and as the republicans keep talking, they re losing the center. that s where the president is gaining ground. all right. we still have andrea mitchell with us in washington. you re next, but first, i want to show the senator this gallup usa today poll. and factor this into the conversation, 30% of those surveyed say they are much less likely to vote for obama because of the bill while 15% say they are much more likely to vote for him because of it. so there is there shall some weak areas. they may be looking at the situation confidently now, but i would suggest carefully, as well. of course. it s a situation. we re taking nothing for granted. happy to be a co-chair of the campaign, and i
i remember bill daily was asked what he learned. he said i learned one thing, by the end of the presidential campaign, the american people know who you really are. what we see in the republican contest, 20 debates and now they ve said no more exposure, please, is people know who these candidates really are. they know mitt romney now. they know newt gingrich, and they certainly know rick santorum. they are out of, i guess, the mainstream position from a democratic point of view. the polls reflect the fact that more exposure for romney is not helping. he s falling further and further behind. as the republican governor of maine said recently, we need a fresh face. we need another alternative to the three who are here. that would mean a brokered convention. would that be good or bad? it s not likely to happen. and in this day in age, not likely when you consider the limited amount of time that would be left. the amount of money that needs to be raised, the organization that needs to
pennsylvania lost. so the we lost the house of representatives by a huge margin. it was a we lost the governorship by more than i lost. do you think this year your position on abortion, the only exception being to save the life of the mother and you did sign the pledge on the personhood amendment which would possibly outlaw some kinds of contraception, do you think that that position is too conservative or too stringent to be a mainstream position for the american people in a general election. i would say most people in america respect life. and want to be a welcoming society when it comes to life. and i think it s an important role for a president to and any leader to stand up and accurately reflect what the facts are. and the fact is, that at the moment of conception, we have life. and that we have courts who have said that we are not going to recognize that life as equivalent to other life.