Poll: 51% agree with Obama's endorsement of gay marriage

[struggle4progress]

By Aamer Madhani and Jim Norman, USA TODAY

More than half of Americans say they approve of President Obama's stance that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally, but 60% say that his shift in position will have no bearing on how they vote in the November election, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup poll ...

The poll was based on telephone interviews conducted on Thursday with a random sample of 1,013 adults living in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-05-11/USA-TODAYGallup-poll-Obama-gay-marriage/54905424/1

[bluestateguy]

1. By next year it will be 53%-54%

and 55%-56% the year after that.

That's what happens when your base is all angry old people.

[Jamaal510]

7. You mean MOSTLY angry old people.

About 30ish percent of voters under 30 voted for John "McMuffin" McCain back in '08.

[AliciaH]

2. But the DNC Convention is in North Carolina?

Seriously, how can the DNC have their convention in North Carolina after it enshrined bigotry into their state constitution? If we really want to stand for civil rights and marriage equality, we should move the convention to a place that reflects Democratic values, instead of the modern equivalent of Jim Crow and "massive resistance."

I have a petition about this up at WhiteHouse.gov, and I'd appreciate your support in correcting this enormous mistake. Please visit http://wh.gov/mMo and add your name to the progressive majority that wants our party to stand for the rights of all Americans!

[bluestateguy]

3. The convention is in Mecklenberg County, where they were 54% against the amendment

Maybe we could move the convention to San Francisco.

Oh right, can't do it because California voted for proposition 8.

[Jamaal510]

8. But at least with Prop. 8, the results were fairly close, unlike with NC.

And SF is widely-known for being liberal, so I don't see the harm in holding our convention there.

[struggle4progress]

4. About 20% of registered NC voters actually voted for this; about another 10%

of registered NC voters actually voted against this; and the remaining 70% or so didn't bother to vote

There were lots of people working against it down here -- but I feel obliged to point out that I had the following phone conversation with hundreds of different folk in recent weeks:

Q: Do you know yet how you plan to vote on Amendment One?
A: I'll definitely vote against it!
Q: Great! Could you volunteer some time soon to help make sure everybody on our side goes to vote?
A: Oh, no! I couldn't do that! I'm too busy! But I'll definitely vote against it! (*click*)

Far too many people think politics is a spectator sport

[SoutherDem]

6. I am not from NC so I don't know

But, I have heard that the primary was a Republican primary, but I don't know if they meant that literally or that there were no "important" races on the Democratic side.

I have seen many elections which the religious right have been very good at getting people to vote on social issues. The conservative side would win although the polls said it wasn't what the general population wanted. I have never understood how denying someone a right, privilege or activity could motivate so many right wing nuts.

[struggle4progress]

9. It was everybody's primary day -- but confusion was the standard:

first, there were ballots for voting age Dems
these ballots included the Dem primary races and Amendment one

and there were ballots for voting age Repubs
these ballots included the Repub primary races and Amendment one

and there were ballots for voting age Libertarians
these ballots included the Libertarians primary races and Amendment one

next there were ballots for 17 year old Dems who will be 18 by election day
these ballots included the Dem primary races but NOT Amendment one

and there were ballots for 17 year old Repubs who will be 18 by election day
these ballots included the Repub primary races but NOT Amendment one

and there were ballots for 17 year old Libertarians who will be 18 by election day
these ballots included the Libertarians primary races but NOT Amendment one

also there were ballots for voting age Unaffiliated
these ballots included only Amendment one

that only begins to deal with the Primary Election Day chaos because the General Assembly's recent crazy quilt redistricting games left many precincts covering a patchwork of different districts: at least one precinct had to offer more than two dozen totally different ballots

[SoutherDem]

10. I understand

why someone might stay home.

[musical_soul]

12. There was a Republican and a Democratic primary.

The Republican one might have been considered to be more important because of the Presidential candidates (although Mitt Romney was already pretty much the winner of the primaries).

The people down here don't see it as denying a right. They see it as stopping gay marriage. They think if gay marriage happens then people will have sex with animals (okay, just one guy said that crap to me), destroy our heterosexual marriages, teach stuff in schools, etc. They weren't listening to reason at all. Trying to tell them that THEIR benefits may be cut from the "domestic union" part of the anti-gay marriage amendment fell on deaf ears.

I think when a lot of people start losing their healthcare and their healthcare for their kids along with domestic violence laws being challenged, many people will realized they were lied to about the true meaning of our amendment one.

[SoutherDem]

5. Just signed

but it showed I was only #36 and it took 25000. An account must be created so I think it may be a little hard. Am I guessing correct, it won't even be shown to POTUS or who ever without 25000?

[musical_soul]

11. Obama needs southern votes.

I'm glad to read the current stances on gay marriage. However, we also read that it will have no impact on November for about 60% of the voters. It's important to get as many southern states as possible. Last go around, NC went blue and voted for Obama. It would be nice if they did so again.

[Forward2012]

13. Letter from Bormingham Jail

"While confined here in the Birmingham City Jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely"........... I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns: and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom far beyond my own hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid."

[Mr.Turnip]

14. Because we want to WIN the state, all the polls have had it very close or Obama ahead for months.

We are NOT going to be giving up our long game of shifting NC to a blue leaning state over this debacle in which 70% of the registered population did not even participate.

Tell me if we want to change the viewpoints of the people of North Carolina is calling them all bigots and running off to some other state really the way to do that?

[LiberalFighter]

15. I think it is higher than that.

[Skrewdriver]

17. I don't know

I think its actually lower than that. Why is Obama losing in all the new polls recently then? If 51% of Americans agree with gay marriage why is it always struck down at the ballot box, even in liberal California? Again, this poll doesn't make sense, why have Obama and Romney switched places in the polls?

[LiberalFighter]

18. Polls are only as good as the wording of the poll and people asked.

Why is it struck down at the ballot box? Because not everyone votes. Some of those issues voted on are timed for maximum intent of defeat. If they are slotted on the ballot in off years then only a certain segment of the voters will show up.

[azurnoir]

16. good perhaps it's time to take down DOMA

actually DOMA never should have been at all