Cheney Daughter Remark

[dazzleman]

I think that Kerry's mention of Cheney's daughter was a cheap political stunt.  He could have answered the question without mentioning his opponent's running mate's family.

A president's, or candidate's, family has generally been been off limits during political campaigns, and both parties have generally abided by this.  This comment about Mary Cheney is another example of Democrats looking to use cheap political stunts to rev up their base and possibly drive fundamentalist votes away from Bush/Cheney.

Mrs. Edward's comments were even more inappropriate than Kerry's in my opinion.  Why doesn't this woman talk about her (losing) battle with obesity if she feels such a need to get into peoples' personal affairs.

I think the whole gay issue has been twisted, in any case.  Neither candidate supports gay marriage.  Referenda to outlaw gay marriage have passed overwhelmingly in every state they have been on the ballot.  Even a liberal state like Hawaii changed its constitution rather than abide by a court ruling to allow gay marriage.

Gay marriage has never been legal, so it can hardly be said that Pres. Bush looks to take rights away from gay couples.  He seeks to prevent the status quo on marriage from being changed without the consent of the people.

As far as the politics for this year go, the reality is that gays did not vote for Bush in 2000 and wouldn't vote for him this year, whether or not he supported a constitutional amendement against gay marriage.  And gays are concentrated in states that he can't win anyway.

In any case, people can be gay, or have gays in their family, without fully supporting the gay political agenda.  The Democratic mentality is that if you belong to a "victim" group, you must think the way the "leaders" of that group tell you to think.

But the truth is that even those who claim to ooze tolerance for gays don't really consider them equal, for the most part.  Acceptance is a matter of degree, not a black and white matter.  I don't know anybody, no matter how "tolerant," who would not prefer, in most cases strongly, that their children be heterosexual.  My guess is that the Cheneys fall into a gray area - they love their daughter, probably accept her sexuality grudgingly, while preferring that she were heterosexual, and would rather not discuss the whole thing.  This is not such an unusual, or terrible, position to take.

Kerry should have answered the question without mentioning Mary Cheney.