About the Gingrich and gay-marriage kerfuffle (video)
Here are some headlines on blogs and websites today concerning something Newt Gingrich said in Iowa:
- Newt Gingrich tells gay Iowa man Scott Arnold: You’re better off voting for Obama
- Newt Gingrich to gay Iowan: Vote for Obama
and the most to-the-slanted-point:
Now here is the exchange that prompted those headlines:
Transcript, for those who can’t or don’t want to watch the video:
Questioner: My question is, is how do you plan to engage with such a large community of people who, on this one specific issue, do not support you? [They] may agree with you on the other parts of what you stand for — but how do you plan to engage and get the vote of gay Americans and those who support them?
Gingrich: I think for those to whom the only issue that really matters is the definition of marriage, I won’t get their support. I accept that that’s a reality. On the other hand, for those to whom it’s not the central issue in their life, if they care about job creation, if they care about national security, if they care about a better future for the country at large, then I think I’ll get their support.
Questioner: So what if it is the biggest issue?
Gingrich: Then I won’t get their support.
Questioner: How do we engage if you’re elected? Then what, what does that mean?
Gingrich: Well then you engage in every topic except that.
Questioner: Except it’s most important (some crosstalk).
Gingrich: Well, if that’s most important to you then you should be for [Barack] Obama.
Questioner: I am, thank you.
Gingrich: It’s perfectly legitimate. I think that’s perfectly legitimate.
A couple of points:
First, “Gingrich doesn’t want the gay vote,” and variations thereof, are misleading. What Gingrich clearly said is that he doesn’t think he deserves or will get the vote of those Americans for whom gay marriage is the No. 1 issue in this election. This is news?
Second, it’s not entirely clear to me that there are as many people who fall into this group — i.e., gay marriage is their most important issue — as the questioner in the video lets on. Gallup polling over the past few months suggests less than 1 percent of respondents think “gay rights issues” — which presumably comprise more than just gay marriage — are atop the list of problems facing the country. Given that an estimated 3 percent to 4 percent of Americans self-identify as gay, you would think the issue would register on such a poll if a substantial proportion of this population felt it was the most important issue that made them single-issue voters, as opposed to an important issue they’ll weigh along with other important issues. As with other sub-populations, gay Americans are affected by most of the same problems as everyone else. (I acknowledge there may be a difference between “most important issue facing the country” and “most important issue to me,” but this was the best polling I could find on the topic. Feel free to share another poll result in the comments thread.)
What these reports do accomplish, however, is further branding one candidate — and, by obvious extension, his party — as being “anti” a whole group of Americans. And it’s done by some of the same people who will, within days if not hours, wring their hands about the polarization of Americans politics.
Sigh.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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246 comments Add your comment
Bill
December 21st, 2011
3:21 pm
Sorry Taft Punk, I meant Ms. Dazy
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2011
3:21 pm
When you meet your maker, and everyone on this board one day will, tell Him.
Maybe Zeus doesn’t care.
And I won’t call you a homophobe, but I will call you a bitter, bitter person. That’s what happens when the world kicks you to the curb and you can’t get the government to enforce your angry prejudice.
Gays can now marry in six states, DADT was repealed and the military hasn’t collapsed, y’all got your @$$es kicked in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, and Newt Gingrich has as much chance of being president as Brittany Spears.
Have a faaaaabulous day, cupcake!
Top School
December 21st, 2011
3:24 pm
I think the choice is pretty clear…
TRUTH will ALWAYS prevail…
Happy & Gay …we choose not to vote for TIRED and MISERABLE.
http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com
Really??
December 21st, 2011
3:25 pm
I don’t understand how a lot of the gay community can be supportive of Obama, at least Newt is being honest but what has our president done for you and the gay community since taking office? Have we heard about one bill that allows gays to share healthcare or marriage or anything else? Also, marriage should be a state issue… it shouldn’t be federal- the constitution does not list managing marriage and divorce as one of the duties of the executive branch
So GLAD TO HEAR IT!!!
December 21st, 2011
3:28 pm
So glad to hear that CHAZ BONO and his/her/it’s partner are splitting up…….Chaz – he/she/it is so ugly I cannot imagine anybody – he/she/it wanting to even be near him/her/it much less in bed…..there is no such thing as gay marriage!
Linda Evans
December 21st, 2011
3:29 pm
Well written article.
Visit http://www.averageageofmarriage.info
YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS
ragnar danneskjold
December 21st, 2011
3:29 pm
Striking conversation, and if the headlines are to be believed, gay people are fundamentally shallow, have only one concern in life, and that is whether society approves of their desire to engage in homosexuality. The few homosexuals I have known are not so shallow.
Bottom line: Those homosexuals with any economic sense are more concerned with removing the current Occupy Oval Office movement; those without economic sense are more likely to vote for the community organizer yet again (as they likely did three years ago.)
This exchange makes Newt more attractive to me, as I believe Mr. Romney would have pandered to the voter. If two candidates hold essentially the same positions on 95% of the issues, I prefer a candidate who actually has positions that matter to him, who is willing to tell a hostile voter that he should go elsewhere.
Hank
December 21st, 2011
3:30 pm
@waterstim
“Before long, Jerry Sandusky won’t be a sin to you either.”
Equating sexual orientation and pedaphilia does not make sense. It’s flat wrong. Shame on you.
ragnar danneskjold
December 21st, 2011
3:31 pm
Think I saw a link on FoxNews or somewhere similar, raising the question of why government should be involved in marriage in any event. The only answer is that leftism compels it, otherwise the progressive income tax is unmanageable. And certainly leftists think it is their duty to manage us.
quick work break
December 21st, 2011
3:32 pm
Really??: What’s he done? Oh, a few things: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-president-obama-has-done-for-the-gay-communit
ragnar danneskjold
December 21st, 2011
3:33 pm
In a gentler time, sex was not a topic of public discussion. It was not conservatives who brought it to the fore. Think it was the eugenicists who screwed up society, their legacy to modern man.
SouthGaDawg
December 21st, 2011
3:34 pm
Marriage is between a man and a woman. Always has been, always will be. Anything other than that isn’t marriage. You can’t change the rules just because you don’t like the game.
Just because you don’t like that something is a fact doesn’t make it any less of a fact. Oh well. This country is filling up with morons, and the media is simply speeding up the process.
By the way, I’m being discriminated against because I can’t marry my car. Morons.
PM
December 21st, 2011
3:35 pm
It’s all a ploy. He makes me sick. Gingrich, that is. People, stop being a pawn. Do you really want this dishonest (even to his own) person being your, ah, president?! Please. The gay marriage thing is just a ploy, just as his Christianity is a ploy. Wake up and smell the roses. This is a bad guy, interested in power, Power, power, power. Gays or not gays isn’t the point. The point is him getting what he wishes: now, for goodness sake, the presidency. He isn’t interested in you. He’s interested in Number One, as he’s always been. Stop being a fool.
ragnar danneskjold
December 21st, 2011
3:35 pm
Why is it that homosexuals always sound so angry on the blogs? Self-loathing?
quick work break
December 21st, 2011
3:36 pm
ragnar: So you would favor cutting all the ~1,000 Federal benefits for straight married couples, then? It might help cut the deficit some, too.
Don
December 21st, 2011
3:37 pm
Just another example of “not news.”
The gist of the conversation was, “If you are a one-issue voter and I don’t support your view on the issue, don’t vote for me.”
That is not news. That is just a statement of everyday, logical, sanity.
Just because the issues is gay marriage doesn’t make the statement news. Reporting Newt’s stance on the issue would be news.
quick work break
December 21st, 2011
3:38 pm
SouthGaDawg (it’s spelled “dog”, btw): cars aren’t sentient. moron
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2011
3:41 pm
cars aren’t sentient. moron
Given the collective posts of the “dawgs” and “UGAs” here, I’m starting to think Kyle is secretly a Tech prankster out to make UGA look like a cow college.
Fresh Prince of Belfast
December 21st, 2011
3:46 pm
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2011
3:21 pm
…and Newt Gingrich has as much chance of being president as Brittany Spears.
LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE
Fresh Prince of Belfast
December 21st, 2011
3:48 pm
ragnar danneskjold
December 21st, 2011
3:35 pm
Why is it that homosexuals always sound so angry on the blogs? Self-loathing?
Oh, the irony, the irony. It’s completely lost on y’all.
TW
December 21st, 2011
3:48 pm
Enter your comments here
Tom
December 21st, 2011
3:50 pm
The fact that there are voters for whom issues like gay marriage and abortion are the #1 or ONLY issue on which they are going to base a vote….be they PRO- or CON- on either issue….does not speak well for the electorate.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
December 21st, 2011
3:52 pm
I’m shocked that a Republican doesn’t get fair reporting from the Obozomedia. Just shocked.
Jimmy62
December 21st, 2011
3:52 pm
Fresh Prince: Read a dictionary. You may not like it, but discriminating based on belief is the dictionary definition of bigotry. If you don’t like it, don’t use the word bigot, but that’s what it means. Words have meaning, and I use them knowing their meaning. Your disagreement doesn’t change the fact of what the definition of bigotry is.
MarkV
December 21st, 2011
3:53 pm
While I share to some extent Cyrils (@ 3:20 pm) negative view of Kyle’s article from the point of view of importance of the reported Newt’s exchange, there is at the end a statement that deserves some thought:
“What these reports do accomplish, however, is further branding one candidate — and, by obvious extension, his party — as being “anti” a whole group of Americans. And it’s done by some of the same people who will, within days if not hours, wring their hands about the polarization of Americans politics.”
Is it fair or unfair to brand as “anti” a whole group of Americans? Taking it literally, of course it is unfair, if it should mean that every single member of that group is accused to be “anti” something or somebody. On the other hand most people interpret this branding as meaning that the “anti’ attitude is shared in that group by a significantly larger fraction of people than in another group of the population as a whole. And that is hardly something that should be dismissed as argument, as Kyle appears to do.
Fresh Prince of Belfast
December 21st, 2011
3:55 pm
So GLAD TO HEAR IT!!!
December 21st, 2011
3:28 pm
So glad to hear that CHAZ BONO and his/her/it’s partner are splitting up…….Chaz – he/she/it is so ugly I cannot imagine anybody – he/she/it wanting to even be near him/her/it much less in bed…..there is no such thing as gay marriage!
Post a pic of yourself so we can judge your appearance! If you’re going to berate a trans person for their appearance who went on national television, surely you’re brave enough to stand up to a few hundred posters reading the AJC. Go on, let’s see it, gorgeous!
Tom
December 21st, 2011
3:56 pm
ragnar, you should take a serious, objective look around at those who are just as extreme in the other direction on the ’social’ issues….they are just as shallow and, to be quite candid, just as harmful to this country’s future.
I’m a life-long GOP voter, a STRONG fiscal conservative but much more moderate/libertarian (small “L”) on social issues than many of my fellow conservatives. Like it or not, each generation produces more GOP voters like me, and thins out the numbers of those who would wish to legislate based on religious dogma. This trend is constant and will not reverse.
Fresh Prince of Belfast
December 21st, 2011
3:56 pm
Jimmy62
December 21st, 2011
3:52 pm
Fresh Prince: Read a dictionary. You may not like it, but discriminating based on belief is the dictionary definition of bigotry. If you don’t like it, don’t use the word bigot, but that’s what it means. Words have meaning, and I use them knowing their meaning. Your disagreement doesn’t change the fact of what the definition of bigotry is.
U mad bro?
Mark
December 21st, 2011
3:59 pm
@ td
December 21st, 2011
2:06 pm
Mark
December 21st, 2011
2:03 pm
@ td..
NO NAME CALLING BECAUSE YOU ARE A JACKASS!
Crying like a lib:-( Can I send you some cheese while you whine some more?
LMAO! You have the audacity to say someone else is whining when all you do every day is whine and complain like a school biatch. You my conservative friend have a lot of nerve.
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2011
4:00 pm
Your disagreement doesn’t change the fact of what the definition of bigotry is.
Treasure your victimhood, Jimmy. Because a woman not wanting to date you for your political views is just like someone calling you a n***er.
Most of us want to date/marry someone with similar interests, only a world-class whiner would twist this into martyrdom.
RGB
December 21st, 2011
4:00 pm
It’s a disgusting reflection on Newt’s interrogator that gay issues are his number one thing. Gays can already have sex with how many ever people they want consecutively or simultaneously, live together, talk about having sex and living together, travel anywhere they want, do most anything they want–but they want some kind of special rights conferred upon them.
So folks like that guy will vote for someone who will forever change this country into something unrecognizable–but as long as candidate Obama tells him that being gay is special and wonderful and better than people who are not gay, then Obama can count on his vote. That’s today’s Democrat mindset.
And then the “guy” can feel like he can “engage” Obama. What the heck does that mean? Perhaps he can land an invitation to an Obama event from Reggie Love and have a three-way “engagement”.
Oh, I fear our republic is at the abyss.
Sheez Louise
December 21st, 2011
4:00 pm
So, if you are a marital infidel you’re better off voting for Newt?
Jimmy62
December 21st, 2011
4:03 pm
I’m not mad, and I wouldn’t want to date someone who discriminates based on political beliefs. I do think you guys need to learn to read the dictionary/ It doesn’t matter how much you think discrimination based on belief is not bigotry, IT IS. It’s right in the dictionary. I’m not trying to martyr myself, I’m only harping on the definition of bigotry. You can’t alter the meaning of a word just because you don’t like a particular meaning. It still means what it means, and bigotry is discrimination based on a number of possible items, including beliefs.
Jimmy62
December 21st, 2011
4:04 pm
Enter your commentsSolving the gay marriage thing is easy. The government should stop recognizing marriages, and only recognize civil unions, and those should be between any two people (or hell, why not three people? Isn’t it discriminatory to say who is allowed to love whom? If two women wanna both be married to me, and I love both of them, why should the government prevent us from having a union of the three of us?). Religions can then do marriage however they want.
Don’t like it because it’s different? So is allowing gays to marry each other. Change happens, get over it. here
Fresh Prince of Belfast
December 21st, 2011
4:04 pm
RGB
December 21st, 2011
4:00 pm
It’s a disgusting reflection on Newt’s interrogator that gay issues are his number one thing. Gays can already have sex with how many ever people they want consecutively or simultaneously, live together, talk about having sex and living together, travel anywhere they want, do most anything they want–but they want some kind of special rights conferred upon them.
As it stands marriage is a “special right” reserved for heterosexuals. If you demand an end to special rights then by all means you should be supportive of gay marriage.
John Pruit's bad comb over
December 21st, 2011
4:09 pm
Kyle, your comb over is worse than mine. Hair piece or transplants please!
Jimmy62
December 21st, 2011
4:11 pm
Fresh Prince: Marriage is not a right reserved for heterosexuals. Homosexuals have every right to marry currently, just not to the same sex. Heterosexuals cannot marry the same sex, either.
Fresh Prince of Belfast
December 21st, 2011
4:17 pm
Jimmy62
December 21st, 2011
4:11 pm
Fresh Prince: Marriage is not a right reserved for heterosexuals. Homosexuals have every right to marry currently, just not to the same sex. Heterosexuals cannot marry the same sex, either.
Don’t be philistine. If a man cannot enter a union with another man but he can with a woman, then obviously the special rights are reserved for heteros. Seriously, don’t be a child with cliché talking points.
quick work break
December 21st, 2011
4:17 pm
Jimmy62: That’s a failing sound bite. It used to be obvious that you marry the person you love. To imply that it’s technically legal for a gay man to marry a woman sullies the institution further.
Jimmy62
December 21st, 2011
4:20 pm
I’m not saying I have a problem with gays marrying each other, I just disagree with Fresh Princes’ take on “rights.”
See my take on the solution to the gay marriage issue at 4:04 pm if you want to know what I really think.
Fresh Prince of Belfast
December 21st, 2011
4:20 pm
Jimmy62
December 21st, 2011
4:03 pm
I’m not mad, and I wouldn’t want to date someone who discriminates based on political beliefs. I do think you guys need to learn to read the dictionary/ It doesn’t matter how much you think discrimination based on belief is not bigotry, IT IS. It’s right in the dictionary. I’m not trying to martyr myself, I’m only harping on the definition of bigotry. You can’t alter the meaning of a word just because you don’t like a particular meaning. It still means what it means, and bigotry is discrimination based on a number of possible items, including beliefs.
I looked up pedantic in the dictionary and there you were.
You’re seriously, unironically equating being turned down for a date (which nurses your victim complex) with someone being fired from a job over their sexual orientation.
No one’s taking you seriously.
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2011
4:22 pm
Kyle, your comb over is worse than mine.
I think the AJC is punishing him by running that picture. I was shocked when I saw Kyle on TV and he didn’t look like his drivers license.
MarkV
December 21st, 2011
4:27 pm
When it comes to the gay issues, there are two separate issues, in my view. One is the right to have sexual relations with people of either sex, and this right should be acknowledged without any discussion in a free society. The other issue is one of a union between people, which we call marriage, and more precisely, of the rights and benefits of such a union. This is hardly a place for a deeply philosophical analysis, but I think that the acknowledged benefits to the society of a union between two people can be applied to both heterosexual and homosexual union. What makes the issue complicated is the fact that the percentage of marriages keeps dropping, and many couples choose to live without the formality of the state-sanctified union
Kyle Wingfield
December 21st, 2011
4:32 pm
Aquagirl @ 4:22: It’s all a ruse to keep the adoring crowds away when I’m out in public
Stan
December 21st, 2011
4:33 pm
Newt, how do you feel about hamsters? Because if you cant put hamsters in front of jobs and national security, I dont think I can support you. Because there are billions of people that care more about hamsters.
kgray
December 21st, 2011
4:34 pm
I can’t understand some of these comments on this blog and I agree with most that Newt wouldn’t win the Republican Nomination for President. First, he’s carrying too much baggage; because, when he was calling for Bill Clinton’s impreachment for his indiscretions, Newt himself was having an affair. Secondly, he stated that President Obama should be jailed for the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac troubles; however, he was a consultant and took almost 2 million from Fannie and Freddie and he should be jailed for lying. I guess you guys have memory laspe of all the things that Bush did when he was in office, he and Chaney lied and told the American people that Saddam Hussein had WMD and then to make matters worst, Cheney’s company Halliburton was given a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq. Someone stated that Obama was dumb and we all know that statement couldn’t be true, he was a Rhodes Scholar and editor of the Harvard Review. I can’t understand why peoeple keep saying take our country back, where and who are we taking our country from; because,the last I checked President Obama is an American citizens and if he an American, then why would we need to take it back from an American. People like Redneckbluedog,dre abd 2012, I’m sure you guys wouldn’t understand that we the middle class are up set with your Republican party and hope they aren’t elected again espescially after the stunt they pulled on yesterday. Please do some research before you make unfounded statements and think beyond Fox News and Rush Who Wants the President to Fail Limbaugh and allowing these people to think for you and not doing your own research. Also, since November the unemployment rate has dropped and it has dropped lower since any President has been elected. Do Your Research!
Wally
December 21st, 2011
4:39 pm
Aqua……you and Jay Bookman should gay marry your sister. Have fun you little ugly tart.
Aquagirl
December 21st, 2011
4:42 pm
Newt, how do you feel about hamsters?
Is there a secret game among cons called “stupidest comparison of gays and _____?” Cars, pedophiles, pet rocks….now hamsters. We may have a winner.
I don’t think y’all realize looking like loons is not a winning strategy.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
December 21st, 2011
4:45 pm
CONGRESSMAN Jim Sensenbrenner: Michelle Obama ‘Lectures us on eating right’ and ‘has large posterior herself’…
She looks like Idi Amin too, just sayin…
Fresh Prince of Belfast
December 21st, 2011
4:47 pm
Wally
December 21st, 2011
4:39 pm
Aqua……you and Jay Bookman should gay marry your sister. Have fun you little ugly tart.
If you’re going to flame it should at least be funny or clever, I’m rating this one a 1 out of 5.