It's tough campaigning when your public approval rating is in the 30's. The war is unpopular and U.S. casualties in Iraq are on the increase. Not to mention news that the Iraq war is making the terror threat worse and that over 600,000 Iraqis have died since the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003. So when President Bush goes out on the campaign trail to convince voters to keep the Republicans in Congress on November 7, he knows that one tactic that will get him applause and rally the faithful is to bash the gays.

Last week the New Jersey Supreme Court split the baby and said that the State must grant equal rights to gays and lesbians. The Court said that State legislators must decide whether to recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions. Either way, same-sex couples cannot be deprived of the financial and administrative benefits of marriage because of their sexual orientation.

The gay rights movement is helped by the fact that most of us know someone who is gay or lesbian. This is how the civil rights movement advanced in the 1950's and 1960's. School desegregation and other social policies acquainted the white population with the black population. It's harder to hate other races when you know racial minorities personally. That's what's happening with same-sex couples. Many of them are like married couples, and more and more people realize that it's not fair to deny them the many advantages that married people enjoy solely because of their sexual orientation.

Of course, Bush could care less about this line of thinking. His party's in trouble! As shown in the below article from Associated Press, he flies to the deep south and throws his spitball, hoping the umpire doesn't notice. Changing his stump speech to bash gays may work in the south, but it ain't going to work here. That's probably one reason why Bush for the most part has avoided the northeast. Even the Republicans up here tend to be socially liberal.

(AP) President Bush has for months cast the midterm elections as a choice about just two issues: taxes and terrorism. Now, with polls predicting bleak results for Republicans, he is trying to fire up his party by decrying gay marriage.

"For decades, activist judges have tried to redefine America by court order," Bush said Monday. "Just this last week in New Jersey, another activist court issued a ruling that raises doubt about the institution of marriage. We believe marriage is a union between a man and a woman, and should be defended."

The line earned Bush by far his most sustained applause at a rally of 5,000 people aimed at boosting former GOP Rep. Max Burns' effort to unseat a Democratic incumbent. In this conservative rural corner of eastern Georgia, even children jumped to their feet alongside their parents to cheer and clap for nearly 30 seconds - a near-eternity in political speechmaking.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples must be given all the benefits of married couples, leaving it up to the state Legislature to decide whether to extend those rights under the structure of marriage or something else.

One alternative, civil unions, is an idea Bush supports. But he ignored that on the way to portraying the New Jersey decision as the kind of thing America should do without