A couple of examples of the shifting playing field in the whole same-sex marriage debate:

1. Dick Cheney, during a 2000 Vice-Presidential debate, when asked “Should a male who loves a male and a female who loves a female have all the constitutional rights enjoyed by every American citizen?”:

“People should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into. It’s really no one else’s business, in terms of trying to regulate or prohibit behavior in that regard…I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that’s appropriate. I don’t think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area. I try to be open-minded about it as much as I can and tolerant of those relationships. … (I) wrestle with the extent of which there ought to be legal sanction of those relationships. I think we ought to do everything we can to tolerate and accommodate whatever kind of relationships people want to enter into.”

2. George W. Bush, during the 2000 campaign, when asked by Larry King “If a state were voting on gay marriage, you would suggest to that state not to approve it?”:

“The state can do what they want to do”

Is it too early to be nostalgic about 2000?