The pro-family conservatives in California met the first half of this years challenge on the issue of gay marriage - they got a traditional definition of marriage amendment on the ballot for this November...making California ground-zero in this debate for the next 6 months.

In fact, they got over 1.1 million signatures on petitions to get it on the ballot - over 400,000 more than they needed. A good sign for the energy and support they'll need in the campaign.

The bad news is that the folks out in California were forced to do this (in spite of having a defense of marriage state law) by their own judiciary....and the good news is that the judiciary is forcing them to do this. By that i mean that the State Supreme Court's recent 4-3 edict declaring gay marriage constitutional gives the pro-amendment folks all that much more gas to get this thing passed in November. And who knows, it might even make the Democrats worry a little about all that extra turnout from "values voters" to the point that they have to spend more money out there for Obama that could otherwise be spent in real swing states this fall.

The other bad news, not just for California but a lot of other states, is that the CA Supreme Court refused to stay the decision until after the election, (despite requests from 10 other state's Attorneys General)... which means we'll likely have thousands of gays getting "married" in California and running back to their home states and instigating law suits there... which means some of those cases will make tracks to the Supreme Court eventually, deciding whether or not one state has to recognize a gay marriage from another state. Meaning whether or not one state can decide for ALL states whether or not gay marriage should be legal.

If that's not enough reason for you to help make sure Obama's not the guy picking the next Supreme Court judge, I don't know what is.