{"id":8809,"date":"2006-10-19T15:43:11","date_gmt":"2006-10-19T19:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8809.html"},"modified":"2006-10-19T15:43:11","modified_gmt":"2006-10-19T19:43:11","slug":"for-mccain-it-depends-on-what-the-meaning-of-marriage-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/for-mccain-it-depends-on-what-the-meaning-of-marriage-is\/","title":{"rendered":"For McCain, it depends on what the meaning of ‘marriage’ is"},"content":{"rendered":"

I never fully understood exactly why Bill Clinton was labeled a “waffler” during ’92 campaign, but the criticism stuck. I always found it relatively encouraging that Clinton could find merit in competing ideas, and could appreciate a certain diversity of thought before deciding on a course of action, but his “waffling” became a key criticism.<\/p>\n

But if you thought Clinton straddled the fence on controversial policies, wait until you hear how John McCain described his position<\/a> on gay marriage on MSNBC’s “Hardball” last night.<\/p>\n

MATTHEWS: But in so many cases in the last president election — the gay marriage issue was used effectively to rally the Christian conservatives to the polls, and it helped bring about the majorities in states like Ohio. You’re saying that your party has never taken a position adversarial to gay marriage and issues like that?<\/p>\n

MCCAIN: On the issue of gay marriage, I do believe, and I think it’s a correct policy that the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, a marriage between man and woman, should have a unique status. But I’m not for depriving any other group of Americans from having rights. But I do believe that there is something that is unique between marriage between a man and a woman, and I believe it should be protected.<\/p>\n

MATTHEWS: Should there be — should gay marriage be allowed?<\/p>\n

MCCAIN: I think that gay marriage should be allowed, if there’s a ceremony kind of thing, if you want to call it that. I don’t have any problem with that, but I do believe in preserving the sanctity of a union between man and woman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Isn’t this at least as bad as “I didn’t inhale”?
\n
\nThere’s simply no coherence to McCain’s approach. McCain says he wants marriage between a man and a woman to be protected and to have a unique status. He also says gay marriage should be “allowed.”<\/p>\n

We should “preserve the sanctity” of a traditional marriage, and we should also allow gay-marriage “ceremonies.” The policy should be limited to “heterosexual marriage,” but McCain is opposed to “depriving” others of their rights.<\/p>\n

I almost get the impression that McCain’s policy is gay marriage should be allowed, just so long as it’s not gay marriage.<\/p>\n

And just to further highlight the problem here, McCain voted against the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the Senate, but supports<\/a> the far more right-wing “Protect Marriage Arizona Amendment,” which is on the state ballot this year.<\/p>\n

A new “waffler” is born….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I never fully understood exactly why Bill Clinton was labeled a “waffler” during ’92 campaign, but the criticism stuck. I always found it relatively encouraging that Clinton could find merit in competing ideas, and could appreciate a certain diversity of thought before deciding on a course of action, but his “waffling” became a key criticism. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}