“It may repel some, it may attract others,” he said. “This campaign is not going to turn on gay marriage.”

Has he never heard of the straw that broke the camel’s back?

Those are the words of Democratic Party’s platform committee co-chairman, Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey.

The committee unanimously voted in Detroit on Monday to endorse same-sex marriage in their party’s platform, the first time a major political party has supported the issue in its statement of policies.

The committee meeting now sends the document for ratification by delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. President Barack Obama gave them their cue of course when he said in May that he supports same-sex marriage. Mitt Romney doesn’t so it might be very naive of Booker to think that the issue is not going to figure in the campaign – nor that it will not cause a few ripples within the Democratic Party itself.

 “The 14th Amendment is very clear -- equal protection under the law,” said Booker.  “We as a party have really embraced the president’s ideas.”

While calling the action “very significant,” Booker told reporters after the committee meeting that the top issue in the presidential campaign would be the economy, not same-sex marriage. He is probably right, but he should also remember Florida in 2000. Who knows what issues were in the minds of the people who put the dimples in those critical chads which made Al Gore yesterday’s man?

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