Yahoo! News is asking voters in swing states how President Obama's support of same-sex marriage is coloring their votes. Below is a perspective from one voter.
COMMENTARY | As a 59-year-old lifelong Democrat in Cincinnati, Ohio, I was impressed with President Obama for speaking out in support of gay marriage.
His declaration was bold and decisive, and he gave me one more reason to cast my ballot for the Obama/Biden ticket this fall. Unfortunately his gay marriage endorsement will probably mean a rough political road in the Buckeye State.
I was proud of President Obama for speaking out on gay marriage. Unfortunately, a lot of people in Ohio may not feel the same way. Let's see how my view might be in the minority this election year:
* A soon-to-arrive Public Policy Polling survey, says Politico, will reveal that 35 percent of Ohio voters support gay marriage. 52 percent do not.
* Ohio's right wing voters who already oppose President Obama will see his gay marriage stance as a call to action that will bring them to the polls. That's what happened with the hot button "one man and one woman" 2004 petition initiative. It became a voter-approved constitutional amendment that redefined marriage in Ohio.
* The state's official 2004 election records show a 71.77 percent voter turnout at the polls that November. That's higher than the 69.97 percent turnout of Ohio voters who helped elect President Obama in 2008, and greater than the 63.6 percent turnout when Bush was elected in 2000.
* The amendment still effectively bans same sex marriages in Ohio, and the Defense Against Marriage Act prohibits the recognition of gay marriages performed in other states.
It's been that way for a long time, and Ohio's right wing organizations will see President Obama as a threat to keeping it that way.
That will mean a hard campaign in Ohio for Obama and supporters of his policy like me.
