Political Radar: Palin Differs With McCain on Federal Marriage Amendment

catching up on my blogging today

Political Radar: Palin Differs With McCain on Federal Marriage Amendment

ABC News' Imtiyaz Delawala Reports: Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin has signaled support for a federal marriage amendment defining marriage as between a man and woman – a position inconsistent with Sen. John McCain, who has opposed such a measure, as well as with her own previously stated position of letting states decide on such issues.

In an interview to air tomorrow on The 700 Club, Christian Broadcasting News senior correspondent David Brody asked Palin, "On constitutional marriage amendment, are, are you for something like that?"

"I am, in my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman," Palin said, citing the 1998 initiative that banned gay marriage in her home state.

"I wish on a federal level that that's where we would go because I don't support gay marriage," Palin added, taking a position at odds with McCain, who voted against efforts for a proposed Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006. Earlier this month, McCain told the Washington Blade, a gay newspaper, that he continues to oppose such an amendment today because he thinks the definition of marriage should be a state matter and not one for the federal government "as long as no state is forced to adopt some other state's standard."

While Palin's position differs from McCain's, it is also seemingly at odds with statements she has made calling herself a "federalist" who supports letting individual states decide on such matters.

When asked last month by CBS' Katie Couric why she considered Roe v. Wade a bad decision, Palin said she believed states and not the federal government should decide the legality of the issue.

"I think it should be a states' issue not a federal government-mandated, mandating yes or no on such an important issue. I'm, in that sense, a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas," Palin said. "And I believe that individual states can best handle what the people within the different constituencies in the 50 states would like to see their will ushered in an issue like that."

McCain, who often calls himself a "federalist," has tied together his opposition to Roe v. Wade as well as a Federal Marriage Amendment as consistent with the position of letting states make such decisions.

"I'm a federalist. Just as I believe that the issue of gay marriage should be decided by the states, so do I believe that we would be better off by having Roe v. Wade return to the states," McCain said in an interview on This Week with George Stephanopoulos in November 2006. "And I don't believe the Supreme Court should be legislating in the way that they did on Roe v. Wade."

As she has said in previous interviews, Palin told CBN’s Brody that she would not "judge" gay individuals, but said that she will continue "casting my votes and speaking up for traditional marriage."

"I'm not going to be out there judging individuals, sitting in a seat of judgment telling what they can and can't do, should and should not do," Palin told Brody. "But I certainly can express my own opinion here and take actions that I believe would be best for traditional marriage, and that's casting my votes and speaking up for traditional marriage that, that instrument that it's the foundation of our society is that strong family and that's based on that traditional definition of marriage, so I do support that."