If he would now just come out in favor of protecting marriage, I suppose I could vote for him and pretend that if and when he fails to keep the promises that I believed him.
You can believe as much of it as you like.
Well, you already know what to expect from Obama. Do you want another 4 years of that?
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Don't believe the smears, he's been working to protect marriage for a very long time already. The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the state had to allow gays to marry. Romney led the effort to get a Protection of Marriage amendment on the state ballot so that the citizens could overturn the court. The state legislature stalled on allowing the amendment, so Romney led a rally in Boston demanding that the people be allowed to vote on it. In the end, the Democrat legislature voted down the amendment and wouldn’t allow it on the ballot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Massachusetts
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Part of Romney’s speech at the rally:
“Legislators so energized to protect the newly discovered gay right to marry had no compunction about trammeling the long established, constitutional right of the people to vote.
The issue now before us is not whether same sex couples should marry. The issue before us today is whether 109 legislators will follow the Constitution.
Tomorrow, I will send these 109 a copy of the Constitution and of their oath of office.
And this week, we will file an action before the courts, calling upon the judiciary to protect the constitutional rights of our citizens.
Let us not see this state, which first established constitutional democracy, become the first to abandon it.”
http://illinoisans-4-mitt-romney.blogspot.com/2006/11/mitt-romney-remarks-111906-democracy.html
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The gay lobby held a protest against Romney’s Protection of Marriage amendment:
Rally Against Romney “Bigot!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaLsE-y1TQE
.
He's been doing that for a long time.
"Marriage is more than a personally rewarding social custom. It is also critical for the well-being of a civilization. That is why it is so important to preserve traditional marriage – the joining together of one man and one woman. As president, Mitt will not only appoint an Attorney General who will defend the Defense of Marriage Act – a bipartisan law passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton – but he will also champion a Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman."
Website
Nine conservative leaders from Massachusetts recently praised Mitt Romney’s record on protecting life, defending traditional marriage, and standing for religious freedom. The nine leaders wrote the following letter on Mitt Romney’s record in Massachusetts:
"Governor Romney immediately and strongly condemned the November 18, 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) decision that legalized “same-sex marriage” in our state. More importantly, he followed up on that denunciation with action – action that saved our nation from a constitutional crisis over the definition of marriage. He and his staff identified and enforced a little-known 1913 law that allowed them to order local clerks not to issue marriage licenses to out-of-state couples. Absent this action, homosexual couples would surely have flooded into Massachusetts from other states to get “married” and then demanded that their home states recognize the “marriages,” putting the nation only one court decision away from nationalizing “same-sex marriage.”…"In 2004 he lobbied hard, before a very hostile legislature, for a constitutional amendment protecting marriage – an amendment later changed by the legislature to include civil unions, which the Governor and many marriage amendment supporters opposed. Working with the Governor, we were successful in defeating this amendment.
"Provided strong, active support for a record-setting citizen petition drive in 2005 to advance a clean constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The petition drive collected the largest number of signatures in Massachusetts history.
"Rallied thousands of citizens around the state to focus public and media attention on the failure of legislators, through repeated delays, to perform their constitutional obligation and vote on the marriage amendment. In November of 2006, Gov. Romney held the largest State House rally in Massachusetts history with over 7000 supporters of traditional marriage.
"Filed suit before the Supreme Judicial Court asking the court to clarify the legislators’ duty to vote and failing that, to place the amendment on the 2008 ballot. That lawsuit, perhaps more than any other single action, was by all accounts instrumental in bringing the ultimate pressure on the legislators to vote. The SJC unanimously ruled that the Legislature must vote and the historic vote was taken on January 2, 2007 winning legislative support. This cleared a major hurdle in the three year effort to restore traditional marriage in the Commonwealth…"
[Signed]
Rita Covelle
President, Morality in Media MassachusettsGerald D. D’Avolio
Former Executive Director, Massachusetts Catholic ConferenceRaymond L. Flynn
Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy SeeProfessor Mary Ann Glendon
Harvard Law School
Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy SeeKristian Mineau
President, Massachusetts Family InstituteDr. Roberto Miranda
COPAHNI Fellowship of Hispanic Pastors of New EnglandJames F. Morgan
Chairman, Institute for Family DevelopmentJoseph Reilly
Former Chairman of the Board, Massachusetts Citizens for LifeThomas A. Shields
Chairman, Coalition for Marriage and Family
“If he would now just come out in favor of protecting marriage”
HE ALREADY HAS.
“I agree with 3000 years of recorded history. I believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman and I have been rock solid in my support of traditional marriage. Marriage is first and foremost about nurturing and developing children. It’s unfortunate that those who choose to defend the institution of marriage are often demonized.” - 12/14/06 National Review Online
“Like the vast majority of Americans, I’ve opposed same-sex marriage, but I’ve also opposed unjust discrimination against anyone, for racial or religious reasons, or for sexual preference. Americans are a tolerant, generous, and kind people. We all oppose bigotry and disparagement. But the debate over same-sex marriage is not a debate over tolerance. It is a debate about the purpose of the institution of marriage and it is a debate about activist judges who make up the law rather than interpret the law.” - Mitt Romney 12/14/06 National Review Online
In contrast, Mr. Romney signed a National Organization for Marriage pledge a year ago in favor of a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage solely as between one man and one woman. Further, the former Massachusetts governor does not support civil unions.
As for whose campaign will benefit more from this social issue, it is worth noting that Obama’s campaign raised $1.5 million within 90 minutes of the broadcast announcement. And at a fundraiser held shortly afterwards at the Los Angeles home of actor George Clooney, the campaign took in some $15 million.
“Hollywood is overwhelmingly progressive when it comes to gay rights issues,” says Michael Federici, a political analyst at Mercyhurst University in Pennsylvania.
Beyond that, at least 33 – or nearly 1 in 16 – of Obama’s top fundraisers, known as bundlers, are openly gay, according to a CNN analysis. The Washington Post estimates that the ratio is actually 1 in 6, while the gay issues publication The Advocate puts the figure at 1 of every 5. Between January and March, they collectively raised at least $8 million.