Dear Marriage Supporter,

The fallout from Pres. Obama's flip-flop on marriage continues. Sixty-two percent of Americans say, in a new Fox News poll, that it was just a political decision on Obama's part (including a plurality of Democrats, 46 percent to 38 percent).

If so, it was a very bad one.

As NOM's political consultant Frank Schubert told California's influential insider Flash Report:

"After months of very carefully managing expectations about his 'evolving' position on gay marriage, President Obama suddenly found himself last week careening between powerful forces like the steel ball in Elton John's 'pinball wizard.' His own Vice President threw him into the pinball machine, and then his Education Secretary thrust the plunger, launching him into game."

"...The left is jumping for joy at their accomplishment, forcing President Obama out of the closet on gay marriage. Their celebration will be short-lived, though, because they have very likely cost him the presidency."

A NYT/CBS news poll showed that a whopping 40 percent of Americans said Pres. Obama's endorsement of gay marriage would affect their vote. Among independents, by a 2-1 margin they said it would make them less likely to vote for Obama.

As Katrina Trinko of National Review put it, "It looks like Barack Obama's decision to support gay marriage is hurting him in the polls."

In one congressional district in Arkansas, according to a new poll, Obama is leading a virtually unknown candidate (with no funds) by only seven points, 45 to 38 percent, in the Democratic primary. "The president's policies are wildly unpopular in a party which has historically supported mainstream Democrats like Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton," says Republican state representative David Sanders. "He's got some major problems, I think. A lot of it is driven by his new position on marriage."

Here I am in a CNN op-ed making the case, looking at just one swing state, North Carolina, which Pres. Obama won in 2008 by just 14,000 votes:

North Carolina is so important to the re-election chances of Barack Obama that he picked Charlotte as the host city for the Democratic nominating convention.

On May 8, all his careful plans came crashing down when 61% of voters in a North Carolina referendum adopted a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

...Obama's embrace of same-sex marriage will help ensure he becomes a one-term president, and his political demise will begin with North Carolina.

Our victory for marriage was so impressive that the prominent Democratic firm Public Policy Polling sent out this Twitter missive as the results came in: "Hate to say it, but I don't believe polls showing majority support for gay marriage nationally. Any time there's a vote, it doesn't back it up."

Other pollsters and polling experts are beginning to admit the obvious: It's easy to rig polls to get Americans to say they support gay marriage. But those polls do not reflect the real underlying support for gay marriage.

When offered the "out" of civil unions, for example, just 37 percent of Americans say they support gay marriage in the Fox New polls. This doesn't mean they are actually for civil unions, as the North Carolina vote makes clear. It means they want a way to express support for marriage without expressing hatred towards gay people as human beings, with real, genuine civil rights.

The media is not acknowledging that marriage supporters don't reject being respectful and civil towards gay people—that's very clear. The Dan Savages of the world have reduced any expression of disagreement with gay marriage to the status of hateful, ignorant and bigoted assaults on gay people. The most committed stand up to the pressure.

The mushy and uncomfortable middle tells fibs to pollsters, who are then repeatedly and predictably surprised by election results.

The same week that Pres. Obama endorsed gay marriage, the vitriol and hatred directed as people who oppose his marriage flip broke out into the news media in two different ways.

Young Bristol Palin innocently blogged against Pres. Obama's marriage flip-flop, especially the way he cited his children as his moral authorities in the matter. The result, she says, is a torrent of hatred and death threats.

"People claim they're just trying to protect the right of two people to love each other—a right I don't contest, by the way—and then spew the worst words imaginable at someone they disagree with," Palin, the eldest daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, writes. "If the agenda is love, why do you hate so intensely?"

Near the bottom of the post, Palin displays some of the worst feedback she's received, including death wishes against her and her family.

"You all, including your son, deserve a slow, painful and miserable death," one commenter wrote. "Your backwards thinking is so sad because the world is moving forward and you will certainly be left behind. May death be upon you."

Palin wonders why her remarks—in which she criticized President Obama for consulting his daughters about gay marriage—prompted such nasty backlash.

(The Palin flap prompted our co-founder Maggie Gallagher to blog, "Unwed Moms for Marriage Unite!" on the Corner at National Review.)

Popular pro-wrestler C.M. Punk himself blogged death wishes to his fans who opposed his endorsement of gay marriage after our great win in North Carolina, according to LifeSite News:

To one objecting fan Punk replied, "Kill yourself." He told another supporter of the nuclear family to "drink bleach."

...In another tweet, Punk castigated the amendment's supporters as "So many stupid people. Bigots."

I was perhaps most shocked by the news that a Hollywood shopping mall has banned the world's greatest boxer, Manny Pacquiao, from appearing on its property—because he spoke out against gay marriage.

(The press falsely reported he had wished death to gay people, which he quickly denied and the reporter who interviewed him confirmed.)

Our Next Gen leader Thomas Peters went on Seattle radio to talk back to all the Dan Savages of the world. You can hear it here:

We are just 945 signatures away from breaking 40,000 in our DumpStarbucks.com campaign. If you haven't signed, can you just take a second to do so now?

In a press story designed to calm fears, Starbucks CEO Howard Schulz admitted that investors are worried, and they're asking about his decision to have Starbucks corporately endorse gay marriage as key to their brand.

Keep the pressure on! Get one friend to go to DumpStarbucks.com today!

The press did not report it, but NOM was at the Bank of America's annual shareholder meeting, which took place in Charlotte, NC one day after the great victory for marriage there.

Bank of America is the company which fired Frank Turek for having written a book opposing gay marriage:

After NOM sent a letter to the board, the corporation sent a letter back making it clear that firing people for their views for or against gay marriage was against company policy, for which we thank them.

In Charlotte, we asked the company to make this policy clear to all their employees—and their bosses. Thomas Strobhar introduced from the floor this shareholder resolution:

Freedom of Speech Resolution

Whereas, the Bank of America Corporate Social Responsibility Report of 2010 says, "Employees with diverse backgrounds and perspectives enrich our business, engage us to better serve our customers and make us a better community partner."

Whereas, the Bank of America Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Statement states it recruits and hires candidates without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, veteran status, marital status, medical condition or disability.

Whereas, we do not offer similar assurances of non-discrimination to job candidates or employees who publicly speak out on issues of concern to them.

Whereas, by not providing free speech safeguards we potentially deprive our company of the unique intellectual heritage, characteristics and perspectives each person brings to the job.

Resolved, the shareholders request the Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Statement specifically include protection to engage in free speech.

This is the start of something big!

What happened to Manny Pacquiao is an example of the mismatch in our laws and policies at the moment. He was banned from shopping at a Hollywood mall because he opposes gay marriage.

Huh?

Well, I suppose the world's greatest boxer will get over that and shop somewhere else.

But I know of no one, not a single person who opposes gay marriage, who would support banning gay people or gay-marriage advocates from appearing at shopping malls.

Meanwhile, at Liberty College, Gov. Mitt Romney received thunderous applause for speaking up for marriage from tens of thousands of young people the media never interviews: Watch it for yourself!

In his new column, Patrick Buchanan points out that Pres. Obama has only one pathway to deliver on gay marriage: the Supreme Court.

"But Obama needs one more justice. If elected, he will get it, and same-sex marriage will be forced on all of America. If Romney wins, the Supreme Court will likely leave the issue of same-sex marriage to be decided by the people and their elected representatives."

Game on!