Michelle Obama last night spoke to Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council at the group's NYC gala, pledging that if elected, her husband will fight against discrimination in all its counterproductive forms: Obama's wife says he'll fight for gay equality [AP via Google] In a related story: We hear that Cindy McCain will today give a speech, wherein she'll support her husband's pro-"Don't Ask Don't Tell," pro-state-level marriage bans, anti-hate crimes legislation, anti-ENDA stances, yet will vow to stop him whenever he wants to fast forward through the parts of "Ugly Betty" that he deems too ...

He’s right, of course. Civil Rights leaders didn’t get their victories by pushing big, hot-button issues like marriage. Although I can’t quite say the comparisons are the same — so much today is different than in the 1950s and 1960s — it is easy to see how more progress could be made on smaller, less attention-grabbing issues like employment discrimination, hate crimes legislation, effective safe schools policies and more. Marriage and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are just the two “biggies.” ...