The Trail

WEIGHING IN ON CALIFORNIA PROPOSAL

Obama Opposes Gay Marriage Ban

Barack Obama does not support a proposed California constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the state, he announced in a letter sent to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club of San Francisco this week. "I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states," the Democratic presidential candidate wrote.

Conservatives are pushing the amendment in light of the California Supreme Court decision overturning the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Republican candidate John McCain backs the proposed amendment.

Obama aides emphasized that he has opposed similar state bans in the past. They said Obama does not support gay marriage but believes that federal and state constitutional amendments banning it can also threaten rights that couples have under civil unions and domestic partnerships, which Obama does back.

Obama quietly made his stance known in the letter to the Toklas club, a California gay rights group. His position comes as a shift for Democrats, as 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry backed amendments to ban gay marriage in some of the states in which he campaigned.

-- Perry Bacon Jr.

MICHELLE OBAMA IS BETTER-KNOWN

Cindy McCain Still a Mystery to Many

Public opinion polls about potential first ladies often produce one of two results: overwhelmingly positive ratings or big numbers in the "no opinion" column. New CNN-Opinion Research Corp. and Associated Press-Yahoo polls -- as well as last month's Washington Post-ABC News survey -- show a mix of both outcomes.

In the latest Post-ABC News poll, nearly eight in 10 adults had already formed an opinion about Michelle Obama. Positive views of her (48 percent favorable) outweighed negative ones (29 percent). A CNN poll out yesterday found a similar split, with 51 percent holding favorable views and 28 percent unfavorable ones.

But fewer in the Post-ABC News and CNN polls had formed an opinion on Cindy McCain (about four of 10 in each poll), and in both, more held favorable views (39 percent in both polls) than unfavorable ones (about a quarter). The AP-Yahoo poll, conducted online, found an even larger disparity in awareness of the two potential first ladies, with more than half not yet having formed an opinion of Cindy McCain, while just about a third were undecided on Michelle Obama.

The results for McCain are more consistent with historical views of a non-incumbent potential first lady than are Obama's. Teresa Heinz Kerry in 2004, Laura Bush in 2000, Elizabeth Dole in 1996 and Hillary Clinton in 1992 all fit a pattern similar to what is seen for McCain today. Michelle Obama's results, somewhat surprisingly, look a bit more like those of an incumbent first lady, perhaps because of her visibility during the extended Democratic nomination fight. Obama's ratings are close to those of Tipper Gore in 2000 or Laura Bush in 2004, though with greater unfavorable ratings.

-- Jennifer Agiesta