Obama Hits Back Hard

I really think Bush and McCain blundered with the "appeasment" idiocy. All of their old tricks are backfiring. As I said on the show today, it only allowed Obama to equate McCain with Bush, put Bush (with his 20something approval rating) squarely in the middle of the campaign, drew attention away from the Hillary/Obama show that the Republicans were enjoying, and allowed Obama to turn this entire thing to his advantage. I thought his speech focusing on Bush's failures today was dead-on and hard-hitting, and he kept calling them McCain-Bush. More of this!

Huckabee Jokes About Shooting Obama

He later released a statement apologizing. What an ass.

A Historic Day

For four hours we talked about the California marriage decision today on the show, and I must say I had goose bumps and teary eyes several times. Speaking with people like Evan Wolfson, among those who led the fight, and Robin Tyler, who was among those who decided to take this court and sue for the right to marry, we were all blown away by the excitement. I took calls from people across the U.S. and Canada, and from so many in California who were celebrating wildly, and I was exhausted yet ready to do another four hours -- and we will, tomorrow.

A few things that we focused on:

1) The California Supreme Court has enormous influence on other state courts, and you couldn't ask for a better second state to rule that marriage must be open to gays and lesbians. The 4-3 decision was detailed and pretty flawless, and, coming from a measured and moderate court dominated by Republican appointees, it will be hard to attack and the "activist judge" charge will only go so far.

2) Having experienced loses in New York's highest court and Washington State's, it was only a year ago when many were saying the strategy of fighting for marriage through the courts was dooming us, and that we needed to switch to legislatures, and get this done by the people's representatives to blunt charges of a judicial fiat. What California showed us is that we need to do both: Having the legislature in California pass a marriage bill twice (even though the governor vetoed it) and having a strong domestic partnership law in place already (practially a civil unions law), has made the California public more open, I believe, to marriage, so that now. when a court does the right and important thing, people will be more willing to accept it, even as the conservative foes of gays are organizing against the ruling.

3) This is not likely to be a huge issue in the presidential race -- not as big as it was in 2004. John McCain is opposed to a federal amendment banning marriage -- the only remedy the right sees in stopping states from making marriage legal for gays and lesbians -- and there aren't many more states left to launch statewide amendments in (many have been passed already, particularly in 2004), and it's already late in the political season anyway.

4) Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both were pretty cold-hearted, not even putting out statements themselves but rather having their campaigns issue very tepid support without quoting the candidates directly. No matter their positions -- and both have said in the past that they support a state deciding on marriage as a remedy to give gays equal rights even if they don't personally (supposedly) support that remedy over civil unions -- this is a huge civil rights win, and they both have been civil rights lawyers, and the least the Democratic candidates could do is say, hey, congratulations!

5) Couples from out of state, unlike the case with Massachusetts, can go to California and marry when the weddings begin in about 30 days. And New York is a state whose courts have recently ruled that out-of-state marriages of gays and lesbians must be recognized. So there will be a lot of people going to CA from NY to tie the knot. Even though Canada is right across the border from New York and its marriages of gays and lesbians are now recognized in NY, for some reason it doesn't register the same way. The connection between NYC and LA and SF is so strong that I think we're going to see much bi-coastal or cross-country or whatever-you-want-to-call-it marrying going on.

6) The organizing from the fundies is going to be fierce -- they see this as the battle of all battles: If they don't stop this in California, they reason, it will soon spread everywhere -- and they are right! A ballot measure to ban marriage in the California Constitution, thus overturn the ruling, looks like it will be on the ballot this November. It is so important that everyone across the country take up this fight. Go to Equality For All and do the best you can to help out.

Things are going to be very different after this. We've hit a very high point in this movement. Now we have to sustain it.

CA Supreme Court Overturns Marriage Ban!


Yes, they did it! And I will be on air talking about this -- got out of jury duty. Another historic day!

CA Supreme Court Decision

The California Supreme Court will announce its ruling tomorrow on marriage equality --- and I have jury duty!

If if the ruling is, as rumored, earth-shattering, and I'm off early enough, I'll be on the show, even if just for the last hour or two (otherwise they'll be "best of" interviews and discussions). If I'm not live on the show, however, look for me here or on the Facebook page for the show, or the Myspace page for the show and we can here discussion.

The American Family Outing

Jay Bakker, pastor of the Revolution Church and son of Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, came into the studio yesterday to talk about his efforts to bridge the divide between evangelicals and LGBT people. He's part of a nationwide fellowship which groups like Soulforce have organized, The American Family Outing.

Clinton Wins W. VA in Landslide

As expected Hillary Clinton has taken West Virginia in a landslide. What does it mean? Will she use to bargain for the VP slot? Where does it go from here? How does the candidate who is supposed to be done and finished emerge in a landslide win? Sure, Obama has it sewn up, but it's not good that his opponent is having a huge win, still. This whole campaign has been unlike any other.

The Latest from McCain's Spiritual Guide

Planned Parenthood, says Rod Parsley -- who John McCain calls his spiritual guide and whose endorsement he accepted -- is engaging in black genocide.

Another Republican "Family Values" Meltdown

A Staten Island congressman who voted for the federal marriage amendment is the latest GOP hypocrite -- this one having a whole family on the side. And it all came out after he was arrested for drunk driving. The GOP is freaking -- another scandal, another seat to defend in a vulnerable district.

Clinton and "White Americans"

The New York Times rightly takes Hillary Clinton to task regarding her comments about "hard-working Americans, white Americans" -- a statement that implied that all other Americans (read: black americans) are not hard-working. We talked a lot of about this on the show yesterday and a lot of people were angry about the comments and accused her of race-baiting. Whether or not she meant it the way it sounds -- and I think it's hard to see how it was some sort of misstatement -- it's not the note to end this campaign on. In some weird way she was trying to show that she's still valuable, but it only served to diminish her.

I do believe that this comment aside, however, Clinton is actually trying to move in a positive direction, not saying anything directly negative about Obama and perhaps seeing the hand-writing on the wall. She knows where this is going and is planning an exit strategy. She needs to go further in that positive direction and bring people together rather than divide.

We've got to get focused on John McCain and put all of this behind. And as I said on the show yesterday, that is not just about Clinton supporters getting around Obama. It's about Obama supporters being gracious enough not to gloat, and, yes, having some compassion for people who are literally grieving -- I hear them all day on the show -- as this has been one of the most emotional nomination battles in recent history.

"It's Over."

According to CBS News, even one of Hillary Clinton's top advisors has told her that it's all over. But she is vowing to go on, either seriously still thinking she could get the nomination or get something else out of this.

New York Marriage Victory

It's final: New York's highest court has refused to hear a challenge regarding recognition of out-of-state marriages between people of the same gender. What this means is that any gay or lesbian couple in New York State that goes to Canada or elsewhere and gets married is considered married in New York. This will go a long way, over time, toward making the case that the state should simply allow gay and lesbian residents to marry under state law.