How a Majority of Americans Came to Support Same-Sex Marriage
A CNN poll yesterday showed that 51% percent of Americans believe same-sex marriage "should be recognized by the law as valid," while 47% percent don't. The New York Times' Nate Silver notes that this is the fourth "credible" poll showing majority support for legalized same-sex marriage in the past eight months. Silver also created this chart (the kissing action to its right is our lil' touch, of course) using a regression to show how quickly America reached this majority-support position. Back in, say, 2000, the median citizen would've thought, "Eh, I don't know about those gays gettin' married... too weird." Nowadays that same citizen is like, "Sure why not." This is a remarkable shift in human psychology.
So don't be surprised if President Obama has a sudden "awakening" before the 2012 election in which he realizes he is morally compelled to support same-sex marriage, like he did in 1996 when all of his district constituents were gay hippie terrorist professors.
