It's a week old, but this Boston Globe article captures the Bush decision to jettison gay votes in the hopes of upping conservative Christian support. A revealing incident:
As Senate Republicans began accelerating the debate over gay marriage last month, President Bush got a warning about the potential for political fallout. Representative Charles Bass of New Hampshire, sharing a ride on Air Force One, told Bush to "back off this gay marriage thing, that it was going to be devastating for him in the Northeast," where voters have a famously libertarian streak
"I don't think they actively support gay marriage, but they have a subliminal distrust for government establishing a moral code for people's lives," Bass, a Republican, recalled telling Bush. In response, Bass said, Bush "looked at me like I was crazy." The president ignored the advice and actively supported a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage....
Turning to the other party, here's Andrew Sullivan's take on Kerry, who supports amending Massachusetts' constitution to ban gay marriage but permit civil unions:
I'm not saying that gay voters should not support Kerry. I just don't want to live through another Clinton ordeal. I don't want a "pro-gay" president getting away with trashing our civil rights just because he's not as hostile as the alternative. ... [Kerry says] that he favors giving gay couples every federal benefit that straight couples have. But he knows this is an easy promise, because it will never be passed. And -- mark my words -- he will not expend any political capital to enact it.
Bush's anti-gay politics makes it easy for Kerry to virtually
ignore the wants and needs of his gay supporters -- where they
gonna go?