Subject: ​Correct The Record Wednesday January 7, 2015 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 15:20:45 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Wednesday January 7, 2015 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> fought for justice for the elderly
#HRC365 <https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash>
https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/senate-bill/2010 …
<https://t.co/JJkjarwUuh> [1/7/15, 12:16 p.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/552876316186660864>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@LorettaSanchez
<https://twitter.com/LorettaSanchez> explains how @HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> influenced the new US-Cuba
relationship in the @OCRegister <https://twitter.com/ocregister>:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/cuba-647244-united-states.html …
<http://t.co/wibQDEnU8i> [1/6/15, 4:11 p.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/552573076844457984>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: Without @HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton>'s leadership at State, US-Cuba
relations may not be what they are today, says @LorettaSanchez
<https://twitter.com/LorettaSanchez>
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/cuba-647244-united-states.html …
<http://t.co/wibQDEnU8i> [1/6/15, 3:15 p.m. EST
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/552559029658984448>]

*Headlines:*

*New York Daily News: “'Ready for Hillary' 2016 draft movement plans
LGBT-focused NYC fundraiser”
<http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/ready-hillary-draft-group-plans-lgbt-fundraiser-nyc-blog-entry-1.2068952>*

“The ‘Ready for Hillary’ draft movement to get the ex-secretary of state to
announce a 2016 bid for the presidency is bringing its road show to
Manhattan on Jan. 16 with an LGBT-focused fundraiser at 42West.”

*Politico: “Warren takes swipe at Reagan, trickle-down economics”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/elizabeth-warren-criticism-trickle-down-economics-114032.html?hp=lc3_4>*

“The Massachusetts Democrat, who many on the left are pressing to run for
president as an alternative to Hillary Clinton, also praised President
Barack Obama for efforts she said were aiding the economic recovery, but
said most Americans still weren’t seeing their lives improve."

*National Journal: “Why Elizabeth Warren's 2015 Kick-Off Speech Matters”
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/why-elizabeth-warren-s-2015-kick-off-speech-matters-20150107>*

"That said, Warren has said repeatedly that she's not running for
president."

*Wall Street Journal: “Elizabeth Warren Takes Aim at Democrats,
Republicans”
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/elizabeth-warren-takes-aim-at-democrats-republicans-1420642851>*

“If Ms. Warren were to jump in the race she would be a heavy underdog
against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is widely expected
to announce her candidacy in the coming months.”

*CNN: “AFL-CIO president trumpets Warren, calls for Dems to pick sides on
labor issues in 2015”
<http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/07/politics/labor-warren-democrats/index.html>*

"'I think that Hillary did an excellent job as secretary of state. I think
she is very, very qualified to be president,' Trumka said at a breakfast
with reporters in Washington. 'Would I say she is the favorite now? Yes.
But I think anytime anybody believes there is going to be a coronation,
that is dangerous for the candidate.'"

*America Rising: “Warren Takes Shots At Clintons In Key AFL-CIO Speech”
<https://www.americarisingpac.org/warren-takes-shots-clintons-key-afl-cio-speech/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=t.co&utm_campaign=20150107_ARPAC-p-warren-aflcio_twitter&utm_content=ARPAC>*

“In some her strongest language yet, liberal icon Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-MA) slammed economic policies embraced over the years by both Bill and
Hillary Clinton in remarks today before an AFL-CIO conference.”

*The Advocate: “Hillary Clinton's Marriage Position Could Be Used as Shield
for Republicans”
<http://www.advocate.com/politics/election/2015/01/07/hillary-clintons-marriage-position-could-be-used-shield-republican-cand>*

“If Clinton continues to maintain that equal access to marriage is a matter
for states, Republicans may continue to point out their alignment with her
on that issue. But November of 2016 is still a long way off, with plenty of
time left to evolve.”

*Articles:*

*New York Daily News: “'Ready for Hillary' 2016 draft movement plans
LGBT-focused NYC fundraiser”
<http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/ready-hillary-draft-group-plans-lgbt-fundraiser-nyc-blog-entry-1.2068952>*

By Celeste Katz

January 7, 2015, 1:09 p.m. EST

This group's got pride -- in Hillary Clinton.

The "Ready for Hillary" draft movement to get the ex-secretary of state to
announce a 2016 bid for the presidency is bringing its road show to
Manhattan on Jan. 16 with an LGBT-focused fundraiser at 42West.

The event, chaired by Lane Hudson and Peter Yacobellis, has a quartet of
high-profile special guests pushing a second run by the former FLOTUS and
senator.

Allida Black, Ready for Hillary's co-founder, will be on hand, as will
former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, as will Bruce Cohen, the producer
of American Beauty & Milk, and "Book of Mormon" actor Rory O’Malley, the
co-founder of Broadway Impact, which promotes marriage equality.

Tickets go for $20.16 (get it?) and host status is available to those who
pay $201.16 (or bring 10 guests).

Clinton, of course, has not formalized her intentions, although there have
been plenty of indications she may run again.

Here's the full host committee list to date:

Tony Altimore, Michael Armstrong,  Ronny Baroody, Will Bell, Jeff Brenner,
Craig Buckley, John Byrne, Dave Castleman, Daryl J. Cochrane, Adelaide
Connaughton, David Costello, Aaron Darr, John Hadity & Scott Davis, Ryan J.
Davis, Tanya Domi, Anabel Evora, Charles Ferrusi, Caleb-Michael Files,
Charles Finlay & Leo Lin, Ralph Furlo, Sue Fulton, Brandon Gage, Nicholas
Galbraith, Brian Glade, R. Couri Hay, Anthony Hayes, Joshua Huff-Williams,
NYC Councilmember Corey Johnson, Kirby, Yetta Kurland, Braden Lay-Michaels,
Jayson Littman, Jonathan Lovitz, Jose Lugaro, Mitch Mathias, Jennifer
McCann, Michael Milnar, Robert Nelson Strobel, Lucas Pattan, Leanne
Pittsford, Haley Plourde-Cole, Patricia Reilly, Jon Reinish, Cathy Renna,
Jose Roman, Seth M. Rosen, Russell Royball, Andrew Sendall,  Peter
Schottenfels, Lynn Schulman, May Sifuentes, Bennett Silverstein, Ali
Simpson, Melissa Sklarz, Bill Smith, Matt Teter, Aaron Tidman, Eric Van
Tielen, Michael J. D. Warner, Sebastian White, and Jon Winkleman.

*Politico: “Warren takes swipe at Reagan, trickle-down economics”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/elizabeth-warren-criticism-trickle-down-economics-114032.html?hp=lc3_4>*

By Kyle Cheney

January 7, 2015, 11:14 a.m. EST

Sen. Elizabeth Warren savaged trickle-down economics and took a swipe at
President Ronald Reagan on Wednesday, blaming both parties for policies she
said have devastated U.S. workers while propping up the wealthy.

The Massachusetts Democrat, who many on the left are pressing to run for
president as an alternative to Hillary Clinton, also praised President
Barack Obama for efforts she said were aiding the economic recovery, but
said most Americans still weren’t seeing their lives improve.

“The trickle-down experiment that began in the Reagan years failed
America’s middle class,” Warren said in her fiery keynote address to an
AFL-CIO conference on raising wages.

“Pretty much the whole Republican Party, and if we’re going to be honest,
too many Democrats, are overly cozy with the financial industry and make
decisions that benefit the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans while leaving
others to struggle, she said. Over the past 32 years, she added, every
penny of America’s economic growth has benefited the top 10 percent of
earners, while the bottom 90 percent has been squeezed.

“We know that democracy does not work when congressmen and regulators bow
down to Wall Street’s political power,” she said. “And that means it’s time
to break up the Wall Street banks and remind politicians they don’t work
for the big banks, they work for us.”

The populist stemwinder drew raucous applause from a supportive Washington
audience that included labor leaders from around the country. But Warren
offered no indication that she was considering a White House run — she has
repeatedly ruled it out in the past — despite recruiting efforts by
progressives who view Clinton as too cozy with the financial industry.

During her 30-minute speech Wednesday, Warren cited Obamacare and the
president’s recent immigration action as the type of David-beats-Goliath
action that the country needs. She mentioned a POLITICO Magazine column
headlined “Everything is Awesome” that highlighted the increasingly rosy
economic picture in America – from falling gas prices to a surging stock
market.

But while Warren credited Obama for the improvements, she said they hadn’t
yet affected the vast majority of Americans. “Despite these cheery numbers,
America’s middle class is in deep trouble,” she said.

In her indictment of trickle-down economics, Warren said politicians of
both parties agreed to fire “the cops on Wall Street” and cater to big
corporations, “turning them loose to do whatever juiced short-term profits
even if it came at the expense of working families.”

“If we are ever going to un-rig the system then we need to make some
important political changes,” she said. “We have seen David beat Goliath.
We have seen the lobbyists lose.”

*National Journal: “Why Elizabeth Warren's 2015 Kick-Off Speech Matters”
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/why-elizabeth-warren-s-2015-kick-off-speech-matters-20150107>*

By Emily Schultheis

January 7, 2015

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was in her element Wednesday
morning, telling an audience at D.C.'s Gallaudet University that economic
recovery has yet to reach the middle class.

But what's just as important as what Warren said is where and when she said
it: as a keynote at a major labor event, just weeks after progressives
launched a massive draft movement aimed at making Warren the 2016
Democratic alternative to Hillary Clinton.

"A lot of broad national economic statistics say our economy is getting
better, and it is true that the economy, overall, is recovering from the
terrible crash of 2008," Warren said. "But there have been deep structural
changes in this economy, changes that have gone on for more than 30 years,
changes that have cut out hard-working, middle-class families from sharing
in this overall growth."

The freshman senator also blasted the perceived evils of "trickle-down
economic theory," saying that Republicans and Democrats alike who call for
deregulation are just "turning loose big banks" to "do whatever they wanted
to do."

Warren also said the issue of wages is "personal" for her, citing her
father's heart attack and her mother's decision to get a minimum-wage job
as a result.

"Unlike today, a minimum-wage job back then paid enough to support a family
of three," she said. "That minimum-wage job saved our home—and saved our
family."

Many of the issues Warren trumpets—a focus on the middle class, raising the
minimum wage, protecting Social Security and Medicare, taking on Wall
Street—are labor's bread and butter, and unions played a big role in
Warren's 2012 Senate victory in Massachusetts. It's not surprising that
she'd speak to union members.

But this was a high-profile event at the start of 2015—and Warren has spent
the past month in the midst of intense presidential speculation, as groups
like MoveOn and Democracy for America launch a million-dollar draft effort
on her behalf. The Draft Warren movement is, for example, using Warren's
speech on Wednesday to organize a series of pro-Warren house parties across
the country.

The Clintons have long-standing ties to labor, but national labor leaders
have said that they don't want her to take them for granted—and that she'll
have to earn their support. Those same leaders are taking a wait-and-see
approach, and Warren would be an appealing candidate for many labor leaders
and union members.

That said, Warren has said repeatedly that she's not running for president.
Thus far, the closest indication of her interest that supporters have is
her verb tense—she has often said, "I am not running," not "I will not
run"—but if Warren keeps giving high-profile speeches like this, her
supporters will have more than just tense to back up the idea that she
might be coaxed into a 2016 bid.

*Wall Street Journal: “Elizabeth Warren Takes Aim at Democrats,
Republicans”
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/elizabeth-warren-takes-aim-at-democrats-republicans-1420642851>*

By Peter Nicholas

January 7, 2015, 10:00 a.m. EST

Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivers a stinging critique of Republicans and
Democrats alike in a speech this morning that says policies pushed by both
parties have created financial hardships for everyday families while
further enriching a narrow sliver of Americans.

At a Washington, D.C., forum hosted by union group AFL-CIO, the freshman
Democratic senator from Massachusetts said headlines suggesting the economy
is rebounding don’t square with the realities endured by households
struggling with student loans, burdensome mortgage payments and sluggish
wages.

Ms. Warren is a popular figure among liberal Democrats who want her to run
for the party’s presidential nomination in 2016. If Ms. Warren were to jump
in the race she would be a heavy underdog against former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, who is widely expected to announce her candidacy in the
coming months. Ms. Warren has said she isn't running for president and
plans to finish out her term.

The Draft Warren effort reflects a yearning in Democratic circles for a
populist Democrat who will, if nothing else, force Mrs. Clinton to move
left and make addressing income inequality a policy priority.

In prepared remarks released by her office, Ms. Warren says the falling
jobless rate and low inflation are small comfort to millions of Americans
who still haven’t recovered from the financial collapse in 2008.

“If you are young and starting out life with tens of thousands of dollars
in student loan debt locked into high interest rates by Congress, unable to
find a good job or save to buy a house, how are you benefiting from low
inflation?” she asks.

Ms. Warren acknowledges that the national economy is recovering, but says,
“There have been deep structural changes in this economy, changes that have
gone on for more than 30 years, changes that have cut out hardworking,
middle class families from sharing in this overall growth.”

In the speech, Ms. Warren doesn’t mention Bill or Hillary Clinton by name.
Yet she took some veiled swipes at the family that has been a fixture of
national politics for the past quarter century.

Former President Bill Clinton moved the Democratic Party to the center in
his two terms in office, ushering in free-trade policies, overhauling the
nation’s welfare system, and signing a deregulatory bill that lifted
constraints on commercial banks and other financial institutions. In his
State of the Union address in 1996, Mr. Clinton proclaimed that the “era of
big government is over.”

Ms. Warren, in her speech, said, “Pretty much the whole Republican Party —
and, if we’re going to be honest, too many Democrats—talked about the evils
of ’big government’ and called for deregulation. It sounded good, but it
was really about tying the hands of regulators and turning loose big banks
and giant international corporations to do whatever they wanted to
do—turning them loose to rig the markets and reduce competition, to
outsource more jobs, to load up on more risks and hide behind taxpayer
guarantees, to sell more mortgages and credit cards that cheated people. In
short, to do whatever juiced short-term profits even if it came at the
expense of working families.”

Ms. Warren also singled out Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a company that figures in
Mrs. Clinton’s past. As first lady of Arkansas, Mrs. Clinton served on the
company’s board of directors for six years.

Ms. Warren said that while corporate profits and gross domestic product are
rising, “if you work at Wal-Mart and you are paid so little that you still
need food stamps to put groceries on the table, what does more money in
stockholders’ pockets and an uptick in GDP do for you?”

Ms. Warren put forward a few ideas for brightening the prospects of middle
class families.

She called for new spending on roads, bridges, and education. Such projects
would be financed through “real, honest-to-goodness changes that make sure
that we pay—and corporations pay—a fair share to build a future for all of
us,” she says.

At least one other potential Democratic candidate is unwilling to cede to
Ms. Warren the status as the party’s foremost populist firebrand.

Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, in his single public appearance since
launching his presidential exploratory committee, has suggested that he
would make income inequality a central focus.

“We have a strata of people at the very top who for a complicated set of
reasons have grown further and further away from the rest of our society,”
Mr. Webb told reporters in Richmond, Va., last month. “We need to find
proper avenues in terms of government policy to make sure that equal
opportunity and economic fairness can exist.”

He continued: “There has to be a way, without slowing down the ability of
those in our society that are the risk takers and the profit makers, there
has to be a way to make sure that people are equally paid their fair share
of the obligations that we have to keep this country going.”

Still, it is Ms. Warren—not Mr. Webb—who has energized a Democratic liberal
wing that believes Mrs. Clinton is too closely tied to Wall Street banking
interests.

Mr. Webb will seek to change that if he decides to mount a serious
presidential campaign, an aide said.

“The issue of economic inequality and the dangers of foreign intervention
are things he’s talked about for a long time, long before Sen. Warren came
along,” said Mr. Webb’s communications director, Craig Crawford. “That just
goes to a big reason to why he’s seriously considering this. He thinks it’s
time for working people to have a president.”

*CNN: “AFL-CIO president trumpets Warren, calls for Dems to pick sides on
labor issues in 2015”
<http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/07/politics/labor-warren-democrats/index.html>*

By Dan Merica

January 7, 2015

Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, will glowingly praise Sen.
Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday, and urge Democratic politicians to pick
sides on labor in his closing remarks at a labor summit on raising wages.

Warren, who is also speaking at the summit, is seen by many liberals as the
best spokeswoman for their causes. Although the Massachusetts senator has
said she is not running for president in 2016, Warren has been followed by
presidential speculation for months as liberal groups have started
movements to urge Warren to run in 2016.

According to prepared remarks provided to CNN by the AFL-CIO, Trumka is set
to call Warren an "inspiration" who embodies labor's "highest ideals."

"Her vision of a Raising Wages America embodies our highest ideals," Trumka
said. "Senator Warren is that rare political leader: she shares out values,
she really connects with us, she is a genius when it comes to policy, and
she is tough as nails when it comes to politics."

He continues: "Senator Warren, thank you. You have always been and will
always be a remarkable champion of working people."

Despite labor's power within the Democratic Party, Trumka has shied away
from weighing in on 2016 politics. His remarks about Warren, however, are
glowing, especially compared to what the labor leader said about Hillary
Clinton, the Democratic front-runner and former secretary of state, in
August 2014.

"I think that Hillary did an excellent job as secretary of state. I think
she is very, very qualified to be president," Trumka said at a breakfast
with reporters in Washington. "Would I say she is the favorite now? Yes.
But I think anytime anybody believes there is going to be a coronation,
that is dangerous for the candidate."

Last year, the AFL-CIO came to an agreement with all its members that,
according to Trumka, "no one will endorse [in 2016] until we say all of us
are going to endorse." And before doing that, the labor group plans to
question all presidential candidates.

But on Wednesday, Trumka urged Democrats to take sides on labor ahead of
the 2016 presidential election.

"We know that no matter what happens in the 2014 mid-term elections, 2015
would be a pivotal year," the labor leader is set to say. "It would be the
year that politicians decided to stand up strong, or to retreat, afraid of
responsibility. To be very, very clear about what we need, or to be murky,
saying a little of this, a little of that, and a lot of 'maybe, kind of,
sort of.' To build our nation's future, or to protect their own backside
with caution and corporate cash."

Wednesday's meeting is the first AFL-CIO summit on raising wages in the
United States. Labor organizations and Democratic politicians used much of
2014 to push raising the minimum wage to $10.10. Republicans thwarted the
law in Congress, but voters in reliably red Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and
South Dakota gave labor leaders hope when they voted to approve ballot
measures to increase their minimum wages.

Trumka will also use Wednesday's remarks to press those priorities, urging
the labor leaders assembled to use their "collective voice" to "protect
workers' full rights to engage in collective bargaining and hold employers
accountable for violations for these rights."

*America Rising: “Warren Takes Shots At Clintons In Key AFL-CIO Speech”
<https://www.americarisingpac.org/warren-takes-shots-clintons-key-afl-cio-speech/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=t.co&utm_campaign=20150107_ARPAC-p-warren-aflcio_twitter&utm_content=ARPAC>*

[No Writer Mentioned]

January 7, 2015

In some her strongest language yet, liberal icon Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-MA) slammed economic policies embraced over the years by both Bill and
Hillary Clinton in remarks today before an AFL-CIO conference.

Warren took aim at Bill Clinton’s famous 1996 declaration that the era of
“big government” was over, and slammed “some Democrats” for backing
“trickle-down economics” and Wall Street deregulation.

Later, Warren declared Washington politicians over the past 30 years
(including the 8 years of the Clinton presidency) have placed the interests
of the wealthy above those of the middle class.

*Advocate: “Hillary Clinton's Marriage Position Could Be Used as Shield for
Republicans”
<http://www.advocate.com/politics/election/2015/01/07/hillary-clintons-marriage-position-could-be-used-shield-republican-cand>*

By Matt Baume

January 7, 2015, 8:30 a.m. EST

[Subtitle:] When Hillary Clinton says that marriage decisions should be
'left to the states,' she's aligning herself with antigay Republicans.

The way the Log Cabin Republicans see it, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush
aren't all that different.

Both are presumed leading contenders for their respective parties' 2016
presidential nominations, and both have said states should get to decide
whether same-sex couples wed.

"It's disappointing to see that Jeb Bush has the same opinion of marriage
equality as the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton," said Log
Cabin's Gregory T. Angelo in a statement. "As it stands, Jeb tacks the same
line as Hillary: that marriage is something that should be left to the
states."

Really, it's only just barely the same line. After all, Clinton supports
marriage equality and Bush doesn't, plus those lines diverge all the more
sharply when it comes to other LGBT issues. But Log Cabin would have you
believe they are similar enough that Clinton should expect to have her view
touted by any GOP presidential contender who wants to look moderate.

Indeed, before Barack Obama "evolved" in his own views on marriage equality
in 2012, New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie (another candidate
thought to be eyeing a 2016 bid) told reporters his "feet are firmly
planted right next to President Obama" on the issue, according to the
Washington Post. Just months later, Christie went on to veto a bill that
would have brought same-sex marriage to New Jersey in 2012, though he
ultimately dropped his efforts to appeal a pro-equality court decision,
bringing marriage equality to the Garden State in 2013.

Now the new moderate getting headlines is Bush, so of course he was asked
about marriage equality coming this week to the state where he previously
served two terms as governor. "It ought be a local decision. I mean, a
state decision," he said. "The state decided. The people of the state
decided. But it’s been overturned by the courts, I guess."

Bush later clarified that "regardless of our disagreements, we have to
respect the rule of law," going on to say that he hopes "we can show
respect for the good people on all sides of the gay and lesbian marriage
issue — including couples making lifetime commitments to each other who are
seeking greater legal protections and those of us who believe marriage is a
sacrament and want to safeguard religious liberty."

For her part, Clinton has expressed similar sentiments, telling NPR's Terry
Gross last year that "for me, marriage has always been a matter left to the
states" and "I fully endorse the efforts by activists to work state by
state."

It's grand of Clinton to endorse the efforts of activists, though her
framing might not describe exactly what they have in mind. When it comes to
outreach and education, a state-by-state approach such as that pioneered by
Freedom to Marry has been highly successful at winning over voters. But,
when answering questions about the legal protections guaranteed by the U.S
Constitution, the Supreme Court is always an appropriate venue for a
decision.

And if you want to get technical about it, the courts didn't invalidate
Florida's marriage ban — the U.S. Constitution did. As more than 55 state
and federal courts have determined, any state (Florida included) that seeks
to ban marriage for gay and lesbian couples is consequently seeking an
exemption from the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of that
founding document.

Any degreee of similarity that Republicans may claim starts truly
unraveling when comparing themselves against Clinton on other LGBT issues.
Bush opposed hate-crimes law covering gays and lesbians, and he claimed
that LGBT people have fabricated their oppression. He opposed equal
adoption rights for gay and lesbian parents, and supported a federal
constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Clinton, on the other hand, endorsed marriage equality in 2013. She
supported the repeal of the military's ban on out LGB soldiers known as the
"don't ask, don't tell" policy. And under her leadership, the State
Department brought new focus to LGBT issues around the globe.

The Log Cabin Republicans opted to focus on the few similarities between
Clinton and Bush rather than their differences. And while it's unlikely
that many of the other potential candidates would want cover for their
antigay views, the leave-it-to-the-states argument is pretty common.

When an Arkansas judge overturned that state's marriage ban, former
governor and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee called for his impeachment.
"If the people wish to allow same-sex marriage, they can put that matter on
the ballot and vote for it," Huckabee said. Similarly, vehemently antigay
Rick Santorum argued that states can do "what they want to do" when it
comes to marriage equality.

And "the states have the right to pass the laws they want to," said Michele
Bachmann in 2011. One year later, legislators in her own state of Minnesota
passed a marriage equality law, and Bachmann suddenly had less to say on
the subject.

If Clinton continues to maintain that equal access to marriage is a matter
for states, Republicans may continue to point out their alignment with her
on that issue. But November of 2016 is still a long way off, with plenty of
time left to evolve.