Before We Start Pointing Fingers ...

I have seen the demographics in the exit polls. However, we are to blame for the apparent passage of Proposition 8. We failed to get the necessary support to defeat this amendment. We were not outspent -- We were out-organized!

Yes, there was considerable support for Proposition 8 among "progressive' Obama voters. Yes, Obama's opposition to Proposition 8 was ambiguous and tepid at best.

That makes it all the more frustrating that we failed to convey our message. I am not a Californian nor have I visited recently. From a distance it looks like we also did not get Governor Schwarzenegger to exhibit any vigor in his apparent opposition to 8. Nor, for that matter, did we seem to have energized California's congressional delegation with the exception of Senator Feinstein.

Tactically, we allowed the Christian right to frame this -- disingenuously -- as "Protection of Marriage." From there, we were defensive and reactive. When they introduced children into the debate, we responded with "children aren't the issue." However, children are very much the issue. What does it say to gay youngsters when -- by force of law -- they are less equal?

From a "marketing" perspective, our advertisements failed to convey a consistent theme. Moreover, one wonders if they were focus group tested. It looks like we were great at raising money and not so great at spending it.

If there was an outreach effort (and again from a distance), it didn't seem to be very visible or proactive. Moreover, Mike Rogers appeared once on Fox News debating Matt Staver and Wayne Bessen was on the O'Reilly Factor. Nevertheless, our visibility in opposition to Prop 8 was something less than spectacular. We failed to capitalize on the national attention that this issue garnered.

Finally, we even failed to inspire our "friends" to energize voters. Since getting her television show, the first time that Rachel Maddow mentioned Proposition 8 was this morning at 12:50 AM EST, long after the polls had closed. If Hilary Rosen was active in opposition to 8, I didn't notice. To his credit, Bill Maher ridiculed Proposition 8 on "Real Time." However, where was Keith O? Prior to the California Supreme Court decision, Chris Matthews openly supported gay marriage as an issue of fairness. Yet, he was AWOL on Prop 8. Huffington Post barely mentioned Proposition 8 and never, to the best of my knowledge, did so prominently "above the fold." Again, I am not blaming any of these people. We failed to energize or motivate them to do the right thing.

I have been a CEO and senior executive of a number of diverse endeavors for a number of years. Often, I have had sales people explain that they were unable to close a deal because the customer was an idiot. I have always corrected them; They were unable to either educate the customer or to make them smarter. I feel similarly in our opposition to Proposition 8. We failed to education our constituency.