** Obama got a big standing O.
there was applause but i dont know that it was from anyone
other than the 100 folks obama gave tickets to..."
** McCain recounted the story of his secretly Christian gun guard who drew a cross with his foot. He teared up as he recalled it. It's a very effective way of talking about what his faith means to him without having to define his theology directly.
** McCain said he would support a federal marriage amendment to the constitution if and when a federal court overturned a state ban on gay marriage. I think that's new, but his campaign disputes this. (After the jump, the evidence that they sent to me.)
** Three Americans whose advise would be indispensable to McCain: Gen. Petraeus. Rep. John Lewis. And Meg Whitman. (trial balloon?) Obama said he's listen to Dick Lugar and Sam Nunn.
Here's what Sen. John McCain said in 2004 about a federal marriage amendment:
If the Supreme Court of the United States rejects the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional; if state legislatures are frustrated by the decisions of jurists in more states than one, and if state remedies to such judicial activism fail; and finally, if a large majority of Americans come to perceive that their communities' values are being ignored and other standards concerning marriage are being imposed on them against their will, and that elections and state legislatures can provide no remedy then, and only then, should we consider, quite appropriately, amending the Constitution.And in 2006 on Meet the Press:
My position has always been that I will vote against a constitutional amendment, which will come before the Senate on, on this issue, because I think the states should decide. That's the essence of federalism. In my state of Arizona, we have a ballot initiative on this issue, which I am supporting. And so--but if the courts, if the, if through the court process, they say that that's not constitutional, then I would support a constitutional amendment.
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