memeorandum: Romney affirms opposition to same-sex marriage (Sarah Huisenga/CBS News)

7:00 PM ET, May 9, 2012

Top Items:

Rick Klein / Yahoo! Good Morning America:

President Obama Affirms His Support for Same Sex Marriage — President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president. In an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts …

Michael D. Shear / The Caucus:

Obama Backs Same-Sex Marriage — Updated President Obama declared for the first time on Wednesday that he supports same-sex marriage, putting the moral power of his presidency behind a social issue that continues to divide the country. “At a certain point,” Mr. Obama said in an interview …

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

BREAKING: Obama Embraces Marriage Equality — President Obama has come out in support of marriage equality for gay and lesbian people in an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts this afternoon: … Watch it: — His endorsement comes less than a week after Vice President Joe Biden embraced …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Washington Post, Politico, Mother Jones, American Prospect, The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, Campaign 2012, Taylor Marsh, The Maddow Blog, Weekly Standard, Towleroad News #gay, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Indecision Forever

E.J. Graff / American Prospect:

I Am Gobsmacked — Well, I guess I'm cynical. I had a list of reasons as long as my arm for President Obama NOT to state that he favors equal marriage. My heart is turning such cartwheels that I am not sure I can write anything cogent. — Here's what I was all ready to say before the announcement:

Discussion: pandagon.net

Log Cabin Republicans:

Obama Announcement Is Cold Comfort to LGBT Americans — (Washington, DC) - Log Cabin Republicans respond to President Barack Obama's latest evolution on the freedom to marry. — “That the president has chosen today, when LGBT Americans are mourning the passage of Amendment One …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, GOProud, Inc., ThinkProgress, rightwingwatch.org, Mediaite, PoliticusUSA and Indecision Forever

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

President Obama's calculated gamble on gay marriage — President Obama's decision to express support for gay marriage in an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts is a decision that comes with real political risk. — President Obama declares his support for gay marriage in an interview with Robin Roberts of ABC News.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Little Green Footballs, Ezra Klein, Business Insider and JOSHUAPUNDIT

New York Times:

Obama Says Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Legal — WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday ended nearly two years of “evolving” on the issue of same-sex marriage by publicly endorsing it in a television interview, taking a definitive stand on one of the most contentious and politically charged social issues of the day.

Discussion: CNN, FiveThirtyEight, The New Republic, The Caucus, Outside the Beltway and Philly.com

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

An Obama Gay Marriage Timeline — President Obama may come out in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage today in an interview with the ABC News. It's been a long and winding road there. — Obama in 1996: “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, NationalJournal.com, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller, Wake up America, Guardian and Instapundit

M.S. / Democracy in America:

Good for Obama, bad for gay marriage — BARACK OBAMA took cubic miles of guff for spending the last few years insisting his position on gay marriage was “evolving”. Now he's finally come out and said what everybody knew he was eventually going to say: he thinks gay people should be allowed to marry the partner of their choice.

Discussion: The New Republic and The Caucus

Fox News:
Obama backs gay marriage, answering speculation on ‘evolving’ position

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and The Right Scoop

BuzzFeed:
Leaked: White House Talking Points On Gay Marriage Flip

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Top social conservative worried the right may lose on gay marriage

Discussion: Reuters

Dan Eggen / Washington Post:
The Influence Industry: Same-sex marriage issue shows importance of gay fundraisers

Discussion: New York Times, OpenSecrets.org, Ezra Klein, Hit & Run, PoliticusUSA and Weasel Zippers

Joe Sudbay / Gay Politics:
BREAKING: President Obama supports marriage equality

Discussion: ThinkProgress, ABCNEWS, American Prospect, Crooks and Liars and DISSENTING JUSTICE

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
Prez and the Evolution: President Obama Comes Out For Gay Marriage To Robin Roberts

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Wonkette and Michelle Malkin

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Lugar's Demise and the Constitutional Crisis — The defeat of Richard Lugar in the Indiana Republican Senate primary is the kind of event that would have been shocking just a half-dozen years ago, and has since grown routine. Incumbent senators used to have almost no fear that they might …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Huffington Post, The Right Sphere, ThinkProgress, Liberal Values, Ezra Klein, neo-neocon, Washington Wire, Balloon Juice, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, American Prospect, Mother Jones, ABCNEWS, No More Mister Nice Blog, CNN and Left Coast Rebel

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:

EXCLUSIVE: Former Sen. Danforth (R) Says GOP Becoming ‘Increasingly Inconsequential,’ ‘Intolerant’ — Former Ambassador to the UN and U.S. Sen. John Danforth (R-MO) — In 2010, former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO) told the New York Times that “If Dick Lugar, having served five terms …

Discussion: Politico, msnbc.com, Hullabaloo and The Gateway Pundit

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:

Richard Mourdock: ‘Bipartisanship Ought To Consist Of Democrats Coming To The Republican Point Of View’ — Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) crushed Sen. Dick Lugar (R) in yesterday's GOP Senate primary in Indiana, ending the 36-year career of one of the few Republican senators left …

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Maddow Blog

Washington Post:
Why Dick Lugar lost

Discussion: National Review, ABCNEWS, Outside the Beltway, CNN, Weekly Standard, Swampland and Hotline On Call

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:
Man in the News | Richard Mourdock: Richard Mourdock's Many Pursuits Don't Include Bipartisanship

Discussion: Firedoglake, Ezra Klein, Washington Post, Capital New York, DealBook, Politico and ThinkProgress

Melinda Henneberger / Washington Post:
Dick Lugar, poor loser?

Discussion: Wonkette and Hot Air

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Moderate Republicans Fall Away in the Senate

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Swampland

KDVR.com is the website for KDVR Television …:

Romney in Colorado: “I do not favor civil unions” — DENVER — Mitt Romney, who's now a sure bet to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee this fall, commented about gay marriage and civil unions during an interview with FOX31 Denver's Jeremy Hubbard Wednesday.

Discussion: Ballot Box, ABCNEWS, CNN, Yahoo! News, Business Insider, The Caucus and Advocate

Ashley Parker / The Caucus:
Asked About Gay Marriage, Romney Doesn't Answer

Discussion: Washington Post, CBS News, ThinkProgress, The Hill, Swampland, New York Times, City Room, Business Insider, ACS Blog, Weasel Zippers, The Maddow Blog, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Connecting.the.Dots

Sarah Huisenga / CBS News:
Romney affirms opposition to same-sex marriage

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Human Rights Campaign, Hit & Run, Harry's Place and ABCNEWS

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed: Republicans: Our Position Is Clear, Marriage Is Between One Man And One Woman

Justin Sink / The Hill:
RNC chairman: Obama ‘played politics,’ GOP ‘clear’ in opposition to same-sex marriage

Discussion: The Hill, Ballot Box and CNN

Bill Dedman / msnbc.com:

Conservative author Jonah Goldberg drops claim of two Pulitzer nominations — On the dust jacket of his new book, “The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas,” best-selling conservative author and commentator Jonah Goldberg is described as having “twice been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.”

Discussion: Mediaite, National Review, FishbowlDC, Taylor Marsh, Crooked Timber, Wonkette, Mad Kane's Political Madness, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »

msnbc.com:

First Thoughts: The margins told the story — Voters arrive at Overbrook Elementary School in Charleston to cast their votes in the primary election, Tuesday, May 8, 2012. … *** The margins told the story: The overall results went largely as expected last night in Indiana, North Carolina …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, The Heritage Foundation, American Prospect and JustOneMinute

John Nolte / BREITBART.COM:
TO EXPLAIN OBAMA'S WV HUMILIATION, DEMS ACCUSE THEIR OWN OF RACISM

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Wake up America, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

Naomi Schaefer Riley / Wall Street Journal:

The Academic Mob Rules — Instead of encouraging wide discussion, the Chronicle of Higher Education fires a blogger. — Recently, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a cover story called “Black Studies: ‘Swaggering Into the Future,’” in which the reporter described how …

Discussion: American Power, Rod Dreher, National Review, The Lonely Conservative, Althouse, TBogg, protein wisdom, Weekly Standard, RedState, The Other McCain and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Emily Schultheis / Politico:

Mass. Dems file ethics complaint against Brown (Updated) — The Massachusetts Democratic Party has filed an ethics complaint against Scott Brown, alleging that Brown has used official resources for campaign purposes. — The complaint focuses on footage of Brown's half-court shot …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed:

5 Questions For Mitt Romney On Gay Rights — Mitt Romney said today that “domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights, and the like are appropriate but that the others are not.” That leaves a lot of gray area, and there are some questions he'll likely have to answer.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland