Move over Oscar and Felix, a new and even odder political couple made history November 4th by passing Prop 8 in California to restore traditional marraige.

One did it on purpose and one didn't.

The fastidiously organized Mormon Church got involved with the greatest of deliberation and with both feet. Republicans should take a lesson from the detailed ground game (GOP consultants - that means knocking on doors) put together by the Mormon Church at the direction of Schubert/Flint. They devoted a "sacrament meeting" to passing 8, and when Mormon bishops ask for volunteers nobody wants to say no.

They also put their money where their mouth is. Up to half the $40 million raised by Yes on 8 came from sources affiliated with the Mormon Church. Catholics provided a lot of the rest. Evangelical Christian churches such as my own at least talked about voting Yes on 8 from the pulpit even though they weren't nearly as active in the campaign as they should have been. 

So-called mainstream Protestant Churches ( Methodists, Lutherans, Church of Christ etc.) failed miserably to live up to their professed Biblical beliefs and a few actually campaigned on the No side.

The Obama campaign had no intention of aiding Prop 8 in any way - they were all opposed to it as was their candidate. But their number one priority was turning out the black vote on the (correct) theory that almost all of them would vote for Obama.

Seventy percent of them also voted Yes on 8 - by far the highest of any ethnic group. Black churches are an extremely important part of the culture, and almost all of them are Bible believing, straight talking (no pun intended) institutions that take the Word seriously. 

The old saying is that politics makes strange bedfellows. There is no question here that Prop 8 would not have passed without the Mormons and the African-Americans. 

Both groups have a history of being persecuted - either for their rather unusual beliefs or for the color of their skin. Now they get to endure more of the same from some radical gays and their allies who call them names and punish their businesses for daring to disagree with them politically.

 Shameful........

The sore losers in the No on 8 crowd are loudly proclaiming that the 52% of the vote received by Prop 8 was a close decision and not really the will of the people. Beside that, they won't accept the people's decision anyway and are now seeking to overturn it in the state Supreme Court. 

These same people say the 52% of the vote Obama received nationally was a "mandate" and a "landslide" that everyone should accept and support.

Go figure.