Prominent right-wing leader Jon Huntsman has announced that gay marriage is a "conservative" issue:
conservatives should start to lead again and push their states to join the nine others that allow all their citizens to marry. I’ve been married for 29 years. My marriage has been the greatest joy of my life. There is nothing conservative about denying other Americans the ability to forge that same relationship with the person they love.
It's surely welcome to hear Huntsman coming out in favor of basic civil rights.
And who knows? Huntsman is, as is commonly acknowledged, an electrifying political presence with a lot of influence with his party's base, and he has until 2016 to convince the American right that marriage equality is, indeed, a defining "conservative" belief. He has plenty of time to lay the groundwork for a primary candidate who supports gay rights but at the same time has a strong record as a rock-ribbed economic right-winger.
Right now, given Huntsman's advocacy, you just gotta consider Andy Cuomo the frontrunner for the 2016 GOP nomination. It's his race to lose.