Author: ChadInFL

Obama suspends campaign for a few days – Ill grandmother

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

Obama leaving campaign trail to visit grandmother

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama is canceling nearly all his campaign events Thursday and Friday to fly to Hawaii to visit his suddenly ill 85-year-old grandmother, his spokesman said.

Best wishes to Obama and his family.  I’m sure his grandmother is proud of him!

Anti-gay CA Prop 8 still too close to call

Proposition 8 would eliminate the right of Same-Sex Couples to marry. It changes the California Constitution so that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid in California. On Proposition 8, are you … Certain to vote yes? Certain to vote no? Or not certain?

Yes 48%

No 45%

http://www.surveyusa.com/clien…

Ugg…

Blacks:

Yes – 58%

No – 38%

Thankfully most of the undecides are from demographic groups more likely to vote no on this.

Connecticut Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage

Three cheers for equality!

http://www.nyblade.com/thelate…

The Connecticut Supreme Court today ruled that denying marriage rights to same-sex couples is unconstitutional.

Connecticut is now poised to become the nation’s third state to allow same-sex marriage, joining California and Massachusetts.

“Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice,” the ruling says. “To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others.

“The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry.”

Eight same-sex couples sued, claiming their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process were violated when they were denied marriage licenses.

Check here for updates later today and the Oct. 17 print edition of the paper for full details.

The Florida fight for marriage equality

Nearly everyone is aware by now that California has an amendment on the ballot that would make gay marriage illegal.  But many may not be aware that Florida also has a similar ballot initiative pushed by the far-right.  Amendment 2 would ban not only gay marriage, but civil unions as well.  Amendment 2 reads as follows:

“Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”

Thankfully Florida amendments need 60% to pass, rather than the 50% that most states require.  However a Mason-Dixon poll from August showed that this amendment had 57% support with 7% undecided.  http://www.floridatoday.com/ap…

I don’t yet have a link but another poll done just this week showed the amendment had 55% support.

This is going to be very close.  Florida doesn’t currently allow gay marriage or civil unions, but it is still important that we defeat Amendment 2.  If we allow this measure to pass it will be much harder to get civil unions or gay marriage passed sometime in the future in Florida.  If anyone would like to donate to this worthy cause go to the following link.  

http://sayno2.com/

Larry Sabato predicting a big Obama win

http://www.centerforpolitics.o…

Larry Sabato is one of he best political analysts around.  He was dead-on predicting the races in 2006.  Even giving all the tossups to McCain would still mean an Obama victory.

His new column up today has the following EV breakdown:

Obama – 278

McCain – 174

Tossups – 86

2004 red states for Obama – NV,CO,NM

2004 blue states for McCain – None

Tossup States – FL,MO,OH,VA,NC