Please stop being an idiot. Bill Clinton signed DOMA. Hillary was not the president. Hillary and Bill are two different people (see, when two people get married, they don't really "become one" like your preacher would like you to believe. Back in the day, the wife would become the husband's property, but we've moved beyond that, at least on paper).

http://www.ourchart.com/node/299303

Newsom cost John Kerry the 2004 election by making gay marriage an election issue when it wasn't.

but it's also a mere straw in the wind, since obama is the staunchest pro-gay candidate in the field (barring, perhaps, kucinich).

hillary is also pro-gay. but how many times has she mentioned gay people on the trail, unprompted and nonpandering?

Just maybe.

It's because such a picture would be used in attack ads against him.

Which it would be - as everyone in politics knows.

PLEASE - can't we just be honest about reality sometimes?

"Barack Obama gets his picture taken with gay people all the time," Hildebrand said. "Including me, his deputy campaign manager."

There's only one solution, of course.

Clinton/Obama 2008.

Priorities straight? Enacted legislation "pales in comparison" to a photo-op/endorsement?

HRC only likes to touch gay issues when the people lobbying for those issues offer her campaign money. HRC was one of the most active First Ladies in the White House in lobbying for policy and legislation on a myriad of issues. And like #12 said, she's including those 8 years as First Lady as part of her Experience™ package.

The Clintons (and yes, since he's campaigning for her too, he's included) have betrayed the LGBT population many times before, and there's nothing to say they won't do it again.

Newsom did something no one else had done- took the bull by the horns and rode it. The only reason some are pissed off about it is that he didn't get the permission of those that choreograph everything in the homo legal world.

Well, hmm, that explains it.

"We're here for ya!"

"Give us your money and your votes!"

"Oops, we can't piss off middle america so we're not going to give you much of anything, or if we do, it's going to be in a seriously watered down version!"

"Can we have some more money?"

"According the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsom is particularly sensitive to how he is portrayed in the media.[4] Newsom has been sensitive to media coverage, yelling at reporters, refusing to answer questions from certain reporters, and threatening to blacklist news outlets.[4] Newsom has been criticized for a large number of press releases, made for TV news conferences, and catchy names to new initiatives that might be obscucuring what is actually accomplished.[4]"

And:

Relationships

In December 2001, Newsom married Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former San Francisco prosecutor and legal commentator for Court TV, CNN, and MSNBC, and who now hosts The Lineup on Fox News Channel. Newsom appeared in a fashion magazine spread with Guilfoyle at the Gety mansion in 2004.[4] On January 7, 2005, the couple jointly filed for divorce, citing "difficulties due to their careers on opposite coasts."[48] The couple had no children.

In 2006, Newsom dated Brittanie Mountz, a then 20 year old hostess he meet at San Francisco's Aqua restaurant. At the opening of the Westfield San Francisco Shopping Center, there where photos of Mountz with the Newsom where Mountz appeared to be holding a wine glass, promoting speculation which Newsom spokespeople later denied, that he had provided alcohol to Mountz.[49]

An article dated Mar 11, 2007 states that he is currently engagement actress Jennifer Siebel. [50] On December 31, 2007, he announced that the two are now engaged, and will wed on an undetermined date.[51] The had become engaged during Newsom's October trip to Hawaii.[51]

[edit] Rippey-Tourk affair

On January 31, 2007, Newsom's campaign manager and former deputy chief of staff, Alex Tourk, resigned[52] after confronting the mayor over a sexual affair Newsom had with Tourk's wife in late 2005. At the time of the affair, Newsom was undergoing a divorce with Guilfoyle and Rippey-Tourk worked in Newsom's office as the Mayor's aide for commission appointments.[53] The San Francisco City attorney investigated Tourk receiving $10,154 in catastrophic illness pay, which is usually reserved for those who are terminally ill, in August 2006. Newsom and all those involved were later cleared of legal wrong doing.[54]

Newsom apologized for the affair at a news conference on February 1, 2007, saying, "I hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk, his friends and family, and that is something that I have to live with and something that I am deeply sorry for." After being approached by concerned colleagues, he checked into an alcohol rehabilitation program.[55] Newsom later said that the difficult times during the exposing of the affair refocused him and allowed him to better appreciate being mayor.[4]

What politician isn't creepy?! In the end, you can only go off what is documented. Hillary has her lack of dissent documented in regards to DOMA.

I'm actually not sure if Obama has or hasn't done anything. Anyone look into his voting/policy record on this issue?

Newsom hasn't done the absolutely terrible job we all feared, but he's still old-guard, a "limousine liberal" (a stupid term I know, but it's a perfect fit here) Democratic party hold over. As OK a president I think Hillary would be, both her and symbolize an entrenched, borderline-corrupt (replete with affairs, ballot boxes washing up in the bay, back-alley deals, etc) status quo that doesn't really excite people all that much, to say the least.

If it were 5 years ago, Obama's perfect San Francisco endorsement would have come from former Sup. and mayoral contender Matt Gonzales if he hadn't dropped the Dem party, who's since returned to the private sector.

Newson's endorsement for Hilary is going to be a wash at best, a liability at the worst.

most of my family lives in the mission and what they tell me is that sf's lefties which are numerous, but disorganized as hell- in sf are still mad at him for beating the green candidate, but that he is still popular as hell, specially among latinos in the city. i tell you what after that cop Jordan newsom seems a hell of a lot better, and my sense is people dont really care who he is banging.

In college my friends tried to get Ralph Nader to have his picture taken with a funny hat. He wouldn't even stand NEXT to the person in the funny hat.

im only telling u what i hear from my fam, and they been there for a looooooooooong time. according to them, he is your next governor.

Robert Haaland of LeftinSF has more here: http://leftinsf.com/blog/index.php/archives/2463

Maybe Obama is a more skillful politician than Newsom? Maybe Newsom was a baby about not getting his photo op?

Just a thought.

Obama = Head of his Class, Harvard Law

Newsom = Even Getty money couldn't buy his way into a good HIGH SCHOOL in SF, went to private school in Marin.

I'm not making fun of the guy, hey, I'm dumb as a stump - but I ain't running for president. Newsom likes coverage, he likes BEING a politician - it USED to impress his catalog-model wife, and it ain't like a little coke addiction ever kept anyone out of office, but he's far outclassed by Obama (and Hilary, in most matters).

Sorry to get this so off course.

Nobody in SF would expect Newsom to endorse anyone other than HRC. In SF Newsom is essentially a conservative (as is Willie Brown, Fienstein, etc), in the sense that he is a big money machine Democrat. He is almost as far to the right as you can get in SF without being laughed out of the city.

Not in San Francisco. Willie Brown got percentages even higher than that and he was a complete incompetent.