Blog Buzz: John McCain and Hamas, Not a Civil Union

Our daily look at stories and topics lighting up the Internets today:

John McCain, the Hamas interview (or is it interviewing Hamas?)

The left side of the blogosphere loves the video of John McCain's chat with Jamie Rubin in which he said that "sooner or later we are going to have to deal with" Hamas. The right side of the blogosphere argues that Rubin mischaracterized both McCain's criticism of Obama and his comments about talking to Hamas. NRO's Jim Geraghty found other video of apparently the same time period where McCain says Hamas has to give up on destroying Israel before any talks can take place. RedState's Soren Dayton says that there's a real difference between dealing with Hamas and talking to Iran. Marc Ambinder says that whether to talk to Iran is in fact the salient issue. And Andrew Sullivan says he agrees with McCain that talking to Hamas is fine and that Obama is off-base on the issue.

Gay marriage and the Sunshine State: Uncivil Union?

Saying McCain could be ambivalent on the issue, Steve Benen wonders whether we might just skip the Culture Wars this time around? Not bloody likely. Leon H. Wolf at RedState says that the key point in the case is the assertion that all sexual choices should be treated equally. Andrew Sullivan argues that the key societal change in this issue is how we collectively view how sexuality works. Jim Manzi at NRO says that it's time to let states decide how they want to deal with this issue, let the blue states be blue and the red be red. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air raises the important question: Will this benefit McCain in November? (His answer: Possibly but probably not.) Finally, in case you were wondering, Bob Barr likes the decision.

—Robert Schlesinger