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I don't have to get married myself in order to campaign on behalf of gay marriage.

Gay marriage has jumped out of the closet on to the front page. Everyone from the president of the U.S. to retired four-star general Colin Powell is embracing the issue, now supported by most Americans. Still, a few people, like former First Lady Laura Bush appear to be conflicted.

Obama's endorsement of gay marriage is hardly as consequential as Johnson's legislative success on civil rights.

Whatever the long-term legal prospects for same-sex marriage, President Obama's willingness to put the matter front and center in an election year can at least make him a candidate for inclusion in Kennedy's Profiles in Courage.

Vice President Biden's surprising declaration of unqualified support for gay marriage seems to have forced President Obama into a public endorsement of a controversial social issue. It is difficult not to suspect that Biden's pronouncement aimed to give the president some political cover.

Was President Obama's endorsement of gay marriage crassly political? God, I hope so.

I didn't know that President Bush would endorse a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

I cannot be a placard waver for every campaign; that's why I have mostly kept quiet about gay marriage.

Marriage is no substitute for political experience.

Supporting the definition of marriage as one man and one woman is not anti-gay: it is pro-traditional marriage. And if support for traditional marriage is bigotry, then Barack Obama was a bigot until just before the 2012 election.