Last night's GOP debate found Republican presidential candidates surprisingly united, according to the New York Times. One unifying point that the Times didn't touch on was that five of the seven candidates present said they favored a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum all said they favored a federal marriage amendment, with Ron Paul and Herman Cain saying they wouldn't. According to the famously anti-gay Santorum, "We should have one law with respect to marriage. There needs to be consistency on something as foundational as what marriage is."
The kind of consistency Santorum wants might be difficult for him to achieve, since a majority of Americans now support gay marriage. Three-fourths of the fifty states would have to ratify the amendment for it to be added to the Constitution; that seems unlikely to happen. But that doesn't mean this won't be an effective way to rally the Republicans' base, although given that growing acceptance of gay marriage, it might not be as useful a wedge issue for the GOP as it's been in the past. If we do end up with President Bachmann, I'll be very surprised. And in Canada.