The New Hampshire development has been very revealing about where the parties now stand. Remember that when the Republican leadership favored the Federal Marriage Amendment, they said they did not necessarily oppose civil unions. They were lying, of course. All the anti-marriage amendments are designed to strip gay couples of any secure legal footing under the law. The Christianists are not fighting for the semantics of the word "marriage". They are fighting to ensure that gay couples are kept inferior under the law - because, well, they believe our relationships are inferior. Giuliani believes his three marriages qualify him to deny gay couples equality under the law. Ryan Sager exploses the grim truth:
This New Hampshire civil union bill has forced all of the major candidates the Big Three in each party to take public positions. And the somewhat surprising result is that all three Democrats support it and all three Republicans oppose it. This is surprising because the Republican primary field is supposedly so socially liberal. And it may well be. But Messrs. Giuliani and McCain seem to have decided that that's not going to fly in the GOP primary.
It's not a crazy calculation. But when your images are A) straight talker and B) take-no-prisoners tough guy, it's hard to reconcile with such clear pandering.