On a conference call today, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina dodged a question about whether President Obama would support including a marriage equality plank in the Democratic party platform. What's particularly interesting is that the question was asked by CNN's Jessica Yellin, a traditional media reporter, rather than the gay press. That means the story about the platform plank is gaining traction outside of the gay media ghetto (a very small ghetto nowadays, at that). And that means it will be harder for the Obama administration, and campaign, to dodge it in the future.
From Igor Volsky at ThinkProgress:
MESSINA: Look, we’re the big tent party here. POTUS has a great record on fighting for fundamental fairness for all Americans. You know, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and many other accomplishments we are very very proud of. You know, there’s a process — there’s no even a delegate platform committee yet — there’s a process to go through this discussion, and the DNC will go through that, and we will have a platform.
But our record stands in sharp contrast to the other side. And what the other side has said is they want a constitutional amendment on anti-marriage, they want to put back into place Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and a bunch of other regressive policies. And so that couldn’t be any more contrasted with our record. So there will be a process for that and we will go through that process.
