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Updated 5:31 p.m. - Mitt Romney reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage on Wednesday but declined to condemn President Obama's endorsement of gay marriage, noting the sensitivity of the issue.
Following a campaign speech in Oklahoma that focused primarily on energy, jobs and the economy, the presumptive Republican nominee reaffirmed his opposition to same-sex marriage in light of Obama's announcement today.
"I have the same view on marriage that I had when I was governor," he said. "I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman."
It was an opinion that Romney had voiced earlier in the day to television affiliates in Colorado, when the former Massachusetts governor faced questions amid growing speculation that Obama would announce his support for same-sex marriages.
But while Romney's position contrasted with Obama's, he declined to sharply criticize the president -- saying he would leave it up to the media to parse out Obama's "evolution" on the issue.
"This is a very tender and sensitive topic as are many social issues, but I have the same views I've had since running for office," he said.
Earlier: Romney renews opposition to same-sex marriage
Romney has previously backed certain benefits for gay couples -- for instance, the right to visit with a sick partner in the hospital -- but said each state should be free to determine their own laws.
It was a markedly more subdued reaction by Romney compared to some conservatives, who condemned Obama's support for gay and lesbian couples' ability to marry.
"The announcement today by President Obama should come as no surprise to the American public," said Rick Santorum, Romney's erstwhile conservative challenger in the Republican primary. "President Obama has consistently fought against protecting the institution of marriage from radical social engineering at both the state and federal level."
"While President Obama has played politics on this issue, the Republican Party and our presumptive nominee Mitt Romney have been clear," said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. "We support maintaining marriage between one man and one woman and would oppose any attempts to change that."
Obama: 'I think same-sex couples should be able to get married'
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who passed up an opportunity to run for president in 2012 but maintains a reservoir of support among social conservatives, also condemned Obama's announcement.
"Obama, Pelosi and the Democrats have been a complete failure on economic issues so now they are going to focus on issues that will rile up their base," Huckabee wrote in a statement released by his PAC. "Well, Mr. President it's going to rile up our folks also. Men and women who support traditional marriage."
A spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry said: "Election year politics will never change Gov. Perry's unwavering commitment to the sanctity of marriage, defined as a union between one man and one woman. He is proud of North Carolina voters who last night elected to enshrine that definition in their constitution, joining Texas and an increasing number of states in the ongoing effort to defend marriage. Once again, it's clear that President Obama's political ideology doesn't line up with the will of the voters."
Romney campaign reckons with gay rights after aide's exit
But for as many conservative voices decried the president's announcement on Wednesday, many more Republicans kept their silence, including most GOP leaders in both houses of Congress.
"Well I think he made his position pretty clear. I've always believed that marriage is between a man and a woman," House Speaker John Boehner said on the Fox Business Network. Boehner said he wasn't familiar with a proposed amendment to the Constitution to define marriage, but said Obama's announcement was a "very controversial" notion.
By contrast, Democratic supporters of the president could, for the most part, hardly contain their jubilation for Obama's decision.
"Today marks progress for the civil rights of LGBT Americans and all Americans," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). "With President Obama's support, we look forward to the day when all American families are treated equally in the eyes of the law."
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who endured her own shift toward supporting gay marriage, also hailed the president's announcement as "a watershed moment in American history."
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Romney's stance on gays seems fair except every chance the three[ Rs ] Romney, Rubio and Ryan have a chance at a public event their embraces with each other leave a lot to wonder about.
O: bob-1805084 who wrote:
I think Romney is saying whatever the Teabaggers tell him to say because Romney is too darn scared to say anything else. Romney is barely hanging on as it is because serious "conservatives" KNOW that Romney is a closet liberal.
Romney is NOT a leader, he's that person Grover Nordquist said he wanted -- just somebody to sign the things Grover Nordquist puts in front of him. A stuffed shirt.
I will be proud when Mitt Romney takes the oath of office and becomes President. Romney's personal position is clear, has been clear, and will continue to be clear on this societal issue. He will continue to defend this position politically and until, and unless, laws - which are passed and enacted through the legislative branch of government, and adjudicated through the judicial branch - force him to accept anything else, he will work to preserve marriage. Americans have been led to believe that this is a popularity issue and it is definitely not. However, Obama is catering to be "popular" and is feeding the public whatever he thinks they want to hear. His moral compass changes with the polls. The last 3 1/2 years has proven that out. And today is just another day of failure for him.
"Romney's personal position is clear, has been clear, and will continue to be clear ..."
Clear as mud dude. Good luck convincing anybody with this type of argument.
Clear as Santorum ooze!
I hate this - I was just on CNN where they state Romney opposes Obama's decision to support gay marriage. The story is completely different here. How are people supposed to react to that? Would it indicate political favoritism or just shabby reporting or what? WHO is telling the truth? It's getting so the news services are as bad as the politicians vacillating with every breeze. WHAT IS THE TRUTH and who can I believe any more çause somebody is lying to me here. ALWAYS QUESTION AUTHORITY AND NEWS SERVICES. ALWAYS. Never assume you know "the truth" about anything if you read it online. NEVER.
Mittens does what mittens needs to do. In Mass. he apparently had no difficult with gays. Now, he's not sure. When he hired an openly gay foreign affair expert and the social conservatives disapproved the spokesman disappeared and is no longer affliated with the campaign.
Nobody knows what this man stands for, I dont think he's made up his mind. If he cant stand the heat from the social conservatives who can he stand up to?
Moral Coward is what he is. A liar is another term.
Well, he is out there and took a position, that's more than what Romney has done on anything. Marriage is marriage, it's a commitment to another person to love honor and cherish. the marriage vows don't say do you take this man to be, it says do you take by name xxx. At least that's how I read it. Isn't that the way most of you had it read. Social conservatives want to control woman's choice, social security privatized for their wealthy investors, no taxes on the rich and infamous (wall street and banker cons) and now they want to control peoples personal rights to commit to one another. They will want us to be slaves to them, tell what religion to follow and do witch hunts if they could.
Yeah ! Rommy. Boo! Obamy
OK Mitt - my horse wants to marry my neighbor's sheep. What's your position? No peeking now.
Julia, how uninformed you are on the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Ignorance is not bliss. The dinner is not even held in the White House and certainly not at taxpayer's expense. As far as gay marriage, there is a reason why 30 mostly southern and midwestern states have passed legislation against gay marriage. The divorce rate is the highest in the southern states and the women want to keep their man from coming out of the closet. Why else would they fear gay marriage?
j
Romney opposes gay marriage but wants to leave it up to individual states to determine.
Obama approves of gay marriage but wants to leave it up to individual states to determine.
There really is no difference between the two on this issue. They both personally want to support their party but neither is willing to take responsibility or leadership on this issue. On a National level, this is a non-issue as neither would support a national ruling. It"s a state issue for both candidates.
Your absolutely right!
Is this a flip-flop or just Obama evolving on the subject that in 2008 he clearly stated that he believed marriage was only between a man and a women and "sacred". Amazing how Obama can change his stance yet Romney can't. While I think Obama is simply pandering to his base I do believe that any person has a right to change his or her mind. I was just amazed at how fast after Biden spoke that the evolution of Obama on the issue was complete. You guys on the left must agree that timing seemed a bit odd.
As an Independent - I am very happy that a President of the the greatest land in the world, finally got out of the "backwoods mentality" and did the right thing. Too bad other candidates/parties are still living in the eighteenth century. He now has my vote!
So Mitt a marrage should be between a man and how many women?
Homosexuality is Immoral, Unnatural, Destructive, and Disgusting.
Then you absolutely should quit hanging out in gay bars, I have to assume that
is where you are seeing this disgusting behavior
I've been skimming through some of these posts and gotta say, Obama NEVER condemned gay marriage, he only said he didn't want to comment at that time. Romney's position, however, is religiously based, which is why our forefathers luckily put seperation of church and state in our constitution. I am a straight, married white male just to clear the air. I saw a great little comic strip on FB today with an older man talking to a younger one. he says, "they said our wedding was unnatural. That it would destroy the sacred institution of marriage. They said the next step could be legalized incest or bestiality! They said our love couldn't produce a normal healthy family." in the next frame the older man says, "But I married your mother anyways." (she's colored). Sound familiar? The more things change the more they stay the same.
It just seems, and I may be wrong, that just about every generation there comes this great "moral dilemma" and it involves someone's right to equality. The thing is, homosexuality has been around long before the birth of Christ. It's found in nature. Chimpanzese have been observed having those relationships. I'm not getting into Evoltionism versus Creationism, but seeing as we share many of the same genes as Chimps, is it really that hard to understand? And when they do get equal rights it's not going to cause the human race to go extinct. Like I said it's been around for a long time and with China having over 1 billion people and the US at around 320 million I don't see any "dark days" of humans dying out any time soon.
So,,,,,,,,Who is next in line to give up a right everyone else is allowed? Should Black folk lose the right to vote? Hispanics lose the right to own property? Women lose the right to work outside the home? Beer drinkers lose the right to drive even when sober?
TCLucas, whites are now the minority , no need to worry.
Just so we're clear, Mr.Romney -- there is no way to "respectfully" deny someone their equality.
John of Orange calls the president's position "controversial". Has he not kept up with the sentiment of average Americans? This is hardly controversial...since the majority of Americans agree with President Obama.
It is pretty hard to stop laughing,someone actually asked Boehner a question and as usual he didn't have any idea what they were tallking about. You would think that the GOP has been embarassed enough by the ineptness of this so called Speaker. Thank you GOP you have been a blessing to the Democratic Party. The Dems should win everything in the fall so this Country can once again have some credibility and get something accomplished.
No Rodney, people can't get along; guess you can blame that on the chimps too. I love being a misanthrope so I can separate myself from these lower forms of life.
Hey MSNBC........... Who the HELL is "the community" ??? It collapsed the highest rated comment on this subject------and the very first one??? How do they do it?? Im in the community and NO ONE ever asked ME about collapsing that comment! Smarten up, MSNBC, because free speech seems to be quite ummm........... dependent on these boards! I had a comment collapsed even tho it had 135+ up arrows!! Seems like some people vote to deny someone they're constitutional right to express political speech?? And they right talks about commies..........................
There is NOTHING more important going on in this country than gay rights, is there? Because distraction is what is necessary for this incumbant to win an election. If the pot of controversy is stirred for distractive purposes perhaps no one will notice the dismal record of failed leadership over the last 3.5 years.
Mitt correctly wastes little energy to dignify this divisive TRIPE with a response.
Failed leadership??
Over 2 straight years of economic and job growth, Wars ending, Spending dropping, Bin Laden dying, Kaddafi dying
Exactly what does "failed" Leadership mean to you? Hahahaha
Well, let me think. How about ...
Economic Job Growth?
Do you mean the Oil platforms leaving their American jobs behind in the gulf for African coastal waters, and drilling off South America; or, the cancelled natural gas pipe line to Houston that we are working so hard to get China to build in Canada; or, perhaps the $500 billion solar plant in California that shut down before it opened? There's a multitude of engineers (except for that one BO was going to find a job for), accountants, construction workers and support staff that are still waiting for the economy to improve - how's that going? I know far more unemployed now than I did 2 years ago - (my Masters Degreed wife being one).
Wars ending?
Would that be the new war in Libya, Arab uprisings, Syrian slaughters, or continuing wars in Africa that are not being fought? The Middle East is far less stable than three years ago, Iran threatens strait of Hormuz oil shipments, and now has real weapons to nuke Israel (not to mention our drone which BO allowed to have before he asked so politely to have returned). How we doin'?
On Leadership
Of course we all know BO singlehandedly hunted Bin Laden down and dealt with him personally, as a true leader is wont to do. A few apologies around the world for bad American behavour - now that's leadership. Throw your own country under the bus why don't we ... oops, that would be Indonesia wouldn't it. Hey, I know, let's sue states trying to protect themselves from international threats ... Now THAT's true leadership!
last laugh, sadly, Ha
Just so we're clear: there is no way to "respectfully" deny someone their equality and their rights.
Oh i see a man with no balls