This is ridiculous. The government has absolutely no business defining who can and can't marry. It's fine with me if the Catholic church doesn't want to marry a couple of the same sex, but the government should treat people equally.

I don't think it has a very good chance of passing. A constitutional amendment requires a 3/4 majority to pass, and that's tough to get. I believe I saw a poll somewhere that said 50% of Americans think gay people should have the right to marry. (Although even I'll admit that those numbers seem pretty high.) Of course, the people wouldn't be voting on the amendment directly, so that makes things a little bit trickier.

Problem is, though, if it does pass it'll be really tough to repeal.

This also puts pressure on Democrats to take a stance on the issue one way or another. Gay marriage has been an issue lately, but it hasn't been much of an election issue. Perhaps Bush is looking to make it one.