Perhaps I missed it, but I was caught off-guard by the format of tonight’s forum. The candidates each appeared separately to answer questions for 15 minutes posed to them by a four-member panel. The candidates appeared in the order in which they responded to the request for them to participate.
First up was Barack Obama. He did a fairly good job of answering questions but he danced around the one about whether the gay civil rights movement is on par with the civil rights movement of blacks.
Next was John Edwards. When asked specifically about the fact that he has said that his religion keeps him from supporting gay marriage, he responded by saying that he should have never said that. He said that he has no right to impose his religious beliefs on anyone. He said that he believes that we should get rid of DOMA and DADT. Points for honesty.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich was third. He is a crowd favorite and supports – without hesitation – all of the issues within the LGBT community. Honestly, this is the sanest that I’ve ever seen him. He said it took him 5 tries to get elected to Congress. I don’t know that he will ever be elected President, but he seems willing to try as many times as is necessary.
After a break, we got to hear from Mike Gravel, who mentioned that he now lives in Virginia. When asked, he said that he believes that if gay marriage were put to a vote, it would be approved. Obviously, he wasn’t in Virginia last fall. He had what was the best line of the night: a good politician can tell yo to “go to hell and make you look forward to the trip.”
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson took questions next. On the issue of same-sex marriage, Richardson believes that civil unions with full marriage rights is achievable. He says he would repeal DOMA, which he voted for, as well as DADT. He says the country needs to be brought along and that the president should lead the effort. He weaseled out of the question of gay marriage, as well as the direct question as to whether being gay is born that way or whether it is a choice. Richardson lost the gay vote tonight.
Bringing up the rear was Senator Hillary Clinton. Clinton relied on the argument of states’ rights as the answer to the issue of gay marriage, and was appropriately called out on it by one of the panelists. Other than that, Clinton stayed on message.
It was interesting to watch the candidates deal specifically with LGBT issues, although I have to admit that there were no surprises and the questions were light on depth, as were the answers.
EDIT: I knew I was missing something. Chris Dodd wasn’t there. I found this story about him pulling out due to the old “scheduling conflicts” excuse.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Vivian, was it just me or was this one of the worst Bill Richardson performances ever? He just looked so uncomfortable and seemed like deer in headlights from the start on the issue.
I only turned it on with Gravel, who I think if he could calm down just a little and try and act a little more sane people might actually listen to what he is saying.
I think Senator Clinton did a decent job, but she rambled on a little too much for me.
Richardson did a horrible job – no other words can describe it. I have to wonder why he didn’t just stay home if he was going to come to this event and answer the way he did.
You know, I never want to get into the Sooper Seekrit World of Code Words and References a la the Fundamentalist Right, but good lord Richardson should have had a clue here. And Etheridge even tried to help him take a second swing at it . . .
Gravel was the most coherent and calm I have ever heard him. Kucinich was definitely the most aspirational one – I love to hear him speak so idealistically 😉 I fell asleep before HRC, but I did watch JE and I am really getting sick of his evasiveness with the gay vote. I wish he would just be honest and say he doesn’t think marriage will pass so he supports civil unions…you know, be a realist about it. Instead he quibbles over his religion to get some of those conservative Dem votes. I can see why a homosexual would resent him.
Yeah, Gravel was calm. Didn’t know he had it in him 😉
Richardson was on message. His message. I give him credit though he lost political capital, but he was has not been a big supporter of the gay community through his political positions and why should he portray otherwise. He respected the community enough to attend, unlike others, eventhough he may not be aligned with their core platform. I feel he went in there and articluated though badly his positions which fact is are at odds with the platform put forth by gay activists. I am not a supporter of Richardson, but feel it took courage to go in there and not pander to get votes. The community may simply be caught in a tuff spot because the two that did the best get marginalized all the time and that was Kucinich and Gravel, problem is that there’s no room for idealism in the Party anymore thanks to the insiders and glorified marketing campaigns that get run under the guise of political campaigns. Its become all about branding and you just can’t brand idealism today. Clinton failed to impress and defending “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” though tactfully did not seem to fly. Fact remains she cannot on the one hand praise the Clinton years for the good things without taking the medicine for the bad. The Clinton adminstration was certainly no friend to the gay community. Melissa E. got it right; promises broken indeed.
Good points, J Scott.
The only candidate that looked comfortable was Dennis Kucinich.
The others gave the most politically advantageous answer they could conjure up. Disappointing. I noticed a lot of “uhs”.
Hillary … states rights? …. wasn’t that the argument for segregation?
I understand gays vote in record numbers so it might be interesting to see if Kucinich will win their vote and do better than expected. I hope so.