Go Ellen! She was too nice though.

(sigh) It will happen... we just have to wait for the old people to die...

"God bless Ellen DeGeneres. God bless her good" are the best words combined in the English language since "All men are created equal."

It's one thing to say he simply has a disagreement with her, but he was too scared to lose votes to even explain why he felt the way he did. That's what's lame.

I love me some Ellen!!!

that was painful to watch. you can see what is decent in the man at war with his dogma/political expediency. the latter wins, and he is damned. the fight is not over until his generation (and the one after, i'm sorry to say) are gone, as bruce said.

My favorite part is whan she said, "(it) feels like there’s this old way of thinking that we’re not all the same" and compared this to voting rights, etc.

Hopefully, this old way of thinking will soon be dead along with the old fucks that promote it.

I love you Adrian! You just made my morning. ;)

He couldn't even look her in the eye. That was painful. I read that as he really doesn't believe what he's saying, and is embarrassed, but who knows.

Goddamn I hate the Republican party.

Nice. I wish she had ripped him on, "I wish you every happiness."

Bullshit. It would make her happy to get married. He only wishes her to be happy insofar as it doesn't conflict with his bigotry.

this is what drives me sooooo crazy about McCain. you can tell he doesn't *truly* believe all the crap he is peddling right now. i think that's somehow worse than those people who actually believe it.

what happened to 2000's McCain? i liked him.

His inability to be genuinely, unabashedly bigoted is going to seriously hurt him.

ellen is a cutie. rep it g.

Just the fact that he appeared on Ellen's show will lose him some votes among the Xtian bigots.

konstant, that mccain is dead.

Well done Ms. DeGeneres. And a pox on the foul-mouthed, two-faced purveyor of Satanic ambiguation known as McCain.

Is Ellen available for VP? Can we start a campaign to have her drafted?

@8 - I agree; I don't think he really buys what he's saying, and he has no way to justify his position when sitting across from someone who has to pay the price for his party's position. The thing I find most galling about the political view of partnership over marriage is exactly that - the politicians are sitting in the fire with someone else's ass, as my father used to say.

Wow. As other commenters have noted, his inability to make eye contact is much more psychologically revealing than a leader should ever allow. That's what makes this whole exchange so uncomfortable.

@8 and 18 - It doesn't matter at this point whether he buys in to it or not on a personal level, because he has certainly bought in to it on a political level. He's thrown in his lot with the bigots, so fuck him.

And, so let me get this right, Obama and Clinton support gay marriage?

Seems to me that they all three have exactly the same position on this one. They support separate-but-equal gay unions.

I don't think she'd get a different answer to the same questions from any of the three remaining candidates.

To me, that there is a Republican candidate that supports separate-but-equal gay unions is a remarkable thing. But not nearly as remarkable as the fact that neither of the Democrats running support gay marriage.

God bless Ellen, but she totally dropped the ball when she had McCain on her show. She should have asked, "Why is it that you get to have a marriage, then throw it away, then have another marriage, all with the full support of the state and the church, while gays and lesbians get nothing?" Because we don't have "one man, one woman" marriage in this country, we have serial polygamy for opposite-sex couples and nothing for same-sex couples.

I could never trust this guy. You can tell (as is previously noted) that he doesn't really believe a word of what's he's selling.

The DNC should buy the rights to this clip and use it as a campaign add.

"Straight Talker" my ass.

@21: Obama said he respected the decision of the California Supreme Court. McCain opposed the decision.

@24

But is he pro gay marriage. Does he think that it should be the law of the land?

Ellen handled it perfectly -- it's her job to be the nice one. I honestly believe her marriage to Portia is what will seal the deal for the defeat of the anti-marriage initiative in CA in the fall. In fact, I believe it already has.

The difference, for those not paying attention, is that there will never be a Republican President who will openly support marriage equality in our lifetimes. With Obama in the White House, there will be. If not him, then soon after. And at least he won't work against it.

In the meantime, they all have to say what they all believe they have to say in order to get elected. I'd rather get the right one in under false pretenses than the wrong one in because he told the truth. Pretend you're not for it now, if you feel you must, just as long as you do the right thing when it counts.

Ellen has so much class; and I applaud her for making the face to face challenge that needs to happen for people to grapple more seriously with what they are spewing in their fear and judgment of "those people out there." He could barely look her in the eyes when face to face - and I hope it makes more than just him think about the flesh and blood people, the so-called "enemies" of marriage and other ridiculous propoganda utilized to separate and spin out "holy" ferver and fear and see - a person - and maybe, just maybe, be able to want to be happy for that person in their marriage. Maybe it's just Step 1 in what can be a longer process of disarming harmful, fearful caricatures of people and seeing real people, face to face. I know I'm being a little Pollyanna, but kudos to Ellen for being brave.

Every marriage, once enacted, will not be subject to a referendum overturning said legal contract.

You have five months to lock it in, engage in binding contractual obligations - mortgage, adoption, family trusts, living trusts, etc - and none of them can be undone.

Those who wait until Nov. 5 don't have that same basic level of protection, however.

Just saying ...

@26

"I'd rather get the right one in under false pretenses than the wrong one in because he told the truth. Pretend you're not for it now, if you feel you must, just as long as you do the right thing when it counts."

And that, my friends, is exactly how we got DOMA and Don't Ask Don't Tell...

What makes you think he's pretending?