Frank Schubert, political director of the National Organization for Marriage, says the Obama campaign’s newly created LGBT task force is dead wrong to dismiss polls indicating the president’s support for gay marriage could hurt his chances in November. Earlier today, the leadership of Obama Pride said they weren’t concerned about a poll showing voters in Florida, a key swing state, are less likely to support for President Obama because of his recent endorsement of same sex marriage. Mr. Schubert said NOM, one of the leading opponents of gay marriage, believes the Sunshine State poll is just the tip of the iceberg.
“That’s wishful thinking on their part,” he told us. “You saw the numbers themselves, the Quinnipiac poll showed about a quarter of people are going to vote against him for this thing. That’s a big problem and I
think he’s going to have a problem in a number of swing states.”
Mr. Schubert specifically cited North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio as states where President Obama could suffer backlash as a result of his stance on gay marriage. All three of those states have laws banning same sex marriage. Mr. Schubert believes President Obama’s call to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act endangers all of these state laws.
“Voters still don’t quite understand the impact of what President Obama’s position is. His position is that the Defense of Marriage Act should be repealed. That puts into play every one of these state marriage amendments because the Defense of Marriage Act provides the legal framework for each of these,” Mr. Schubert said. “Without the Defense of Marriage Act, a couple from one state that has same sex marriage can move to another and demand that their marriage be recognized. It won’t be long before a court would agree with them, so that would, in effect, invalidate all of these marriage amendments.”
Mr. Schubert expects poll numbers on same sex marriage will get worse for President Obama once voters “really understand the significance” of his stance.
“Once the issue becomes clearer in voters’ minds as to what this means, I think they’re going be very upset,” said Mr. Schubert. “The natural endpoint of President Obama’s position is for states to lose the right to define marriage themselves. That’s where his position ends even though he says he wants states to be able to decide for themselves.”
