Cate Edwards: On gay issue I'm with mom, not dad

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: September 30, 2007
Cate Edwards: On gay issue I'm with mom, not dad


Cate Edwards said she sides with her mother on the issue of gay marriage.

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) – Cate Edwards took questions in Des Moines Sunday on behalf of her father, Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, but she could only answer a few without referring to a campaign staffer for the details of her dad's positions. She needed no help, however, in responding to a question relating to her position on gay rights, specifically gay marriage.

"I'm on my mom's side with this, not my dad's," Edwards said. "It's the word 'marriage' that he is hung up on."

"It's not about gay rights," she added. John Edwards has said he does not support gay marriage, but his wife, Elizabeth, does. "He very much does not understand –- he has trouble, I guess, with the term 'gay marriage.' I don't," Cate Edwards said.

"I'm not going to try to defend him on that because I don't agree with it, but that's where he stands. But I don't want it to be understood as not standing for gay rights because that's certainly not true."...

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/30/cate-edwards-on-gay-issue-im-with-mom-not-dad/#more-2262

[Colobo]

1. I love Cate's honesty, but this doesn't help dad. At all.

[jsamuel]

4. who cares if it helps dad, she has every right to speak her mind, just like Elizabeth

[smalll]

5. How do we know her dad didn't send her out to say this?

He sends out his wife often enough to make points that it would be impolitic or risky for the candidate himself to make. This Cate statement may be engineered to either shore up gay support for Edwards, or possibly to highlight the fact that John himself, in fact, is against gay marriage (without him having to say it again himself.)

I'm half waiting for the Edwards little ones to tell us that they read about the two marrying princes at school last year, and they thought it was just fine.

[tritsofme]

16. If that wasn't the case it would be indicative of a horribly ran campaign

If he is allowing his family to say anything they wish to the media without any campaign coordination.

[TwilightZone]

6. Care to elaborate?

His wife is already on record disagreeing with his position; his daughter doing the same would seem to do little to the status quo.

[Colobo]

9. According to the article

Cate knows very little about his dad's campaign positions (constantly referring to campaign staffers to answer questions regarding her dad's positions on other issues), but does know that she doesn't agree with him when it comes to gay marriage...

Let's imagine Michelle Obama said one day: I'm not sure of what Barack thinks about _________ issue, but I do know I don't agree with him on Social Security.

That wouldn't help Barack.

See my point?

[Cameron27]

10. This is what bothers me about it,

because for some reason I think Edwards really does think this helps. To me if his wife and children can't move him, he appears to be intractable on the subject. I don't know if that's true in reality, but that's the message I get.

[TwilightZone]

12. Family members disagree on issues all the time.

If memory serves, Laura and Barbara Bush are both allegedly pro-choice. That fact seems to have had little impact on the public's perception of W's stance on choice.

I could be wrong, but I just don't think intra-family disagreements on issues are really going to mean much to most voters. The candidate's stances are the ones that most people will see.

[Cameron27]

13. Maybe Laura and Babs are pro-choice,

but I don't remember that fact garnering the attention that Elizabeth got when she spoke out, and then when John reinforced the difference. To tell you the truth, I've only heard the pro-choice thing as a rumor.

It's only my opinion, and worth exactly that lol.

[TwilightZone]

14. My (original) point was that Elizabeth had already made the disagreement public...

so, I don't really see how their daughter making the same statement would really make any difference.

Again, I could be wrong, but I really think it's a non-issue.

[Cameron27]

15. Oh ok, that makes sense.

[TwilightZone]

11. Not really.

I don't think what his daughter says is going to have much impact on anyone, one way or another.

I'm not sure it really compares to something Michelle Obama might say. Mrs. Obama's public presence seems to be significantly greater than that of John's kids.

[mitchtv]

8. honesty always helps

At least someone close to him gets it.

[rodeodance]

2. neither Obama nor Clinton support gay marriage either.

[geek tragedy]

3. Maybe I'll vote for her in a future primary.

Not her dad though.

[WCGreen]

7. MAybe if you vote for Obama, you can have hope for a new beginning...