The Purpose-Driven Answer

But Mr. Obama also said he opposed a constitutional amendment defining marriage that narrowly and said he supported same-sex civil unions. “For gay partners to visit each other in the hospital, I don’t think limits my core beliefs about what marriage is,” he said.

Mr. McCain said courts in California were wrong to approve same-sex marriages but also said somewhat vaguely that that “doesn’t mean people can’t enter into legal agreements.”

Except, of course, in states where "legal agreements" are barred, too, Virginia, for example.