White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today dodged a question about whether President Obama has “backtracked” from his earlier support of same-sex marriage.
In 1996, while campaigning for an Illinois Senate seat, Obama indicated his support on a candidate questionnaire for the Windy City Times, writing, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.”
Asked today about the questionnaire by the Washington Blade, Gibbs declined to address it directly.
“I think there’s a whole host of issues that I would direct you to the campaign on — on different questionnaires and I would again reiterate what the president has said recently on that issue,” Gibbs said. Asked whether he questions the accuracy of the 1996 questionnaire response, Gibbs replied, “Again, I’m happy to send you the several thousand clips of which went around during the course of 2008 on a whole host of those issues.”
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/01/24/gibbs-nearly-ends-news-conference-over-marriage-questions/