What exactly was McCain's position on gay marriage / civil unions in the 2008 campaign? I know McCain was against the passage of a constitutional amendment that would ban it.....so I guess he was for the federalist position of "let each state pass their own laws on this". But did he come out with a position on the question of what he thought the states should do on this, if they retained the authority to decide on their own?
Actually....now that I think about it.....wasn't there that one Hardball interview, where McCain said that he's fine with gays having private ceremonies or what have you.....but didn't think it should be called "marriage"? So is Huntsman's position really much different from McCain's?
It is, a little. McCain was either for very weak civil unions, or against them, depending on which position he was pretending to advocate on the given day.
I doubt he really cares about civil unions one way or another. I also doubt he'd be crestfallen if gay marriage happened, but obviously he objects to it enough to campaign for a ban in Arizona. More than anything, I think it was clear during the campaign that it made him uncomfortable, and he would have liked people to stop asking. I'd say he seems internally conflicted, but I'm not even sure he thought about it enough for that.
Huntsman is unequivocally for strong civil unions. So yeah, I would say their positions are notably different.
