I’m confused. John McCain is once again implementing his ingenious “Alienate the Conservative Base” strategy. McCain said on Sunday that gays should not be allowed to adopt, as reported in the New York Times:

“I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption.”

Pretty clear. In fact I started thinking to myself that maybe I’d been too hard on him in the past.

But…then the gay blogosphere went bonkers calling McCain a “homophobe” and “anti-gay” and then McCain did what McCain does. He buckled. Sending out Jill Hazelbaker, McCain’s Director of Communications, who said this via Andrew Sullivan:

McCain could have been clearer in the interview in stating that his position on gay adoption is that it is a state issue, just as he made it clear in the interview that marriage is a state issue. He was not endorsing any federal legislation.

McCain’s expressed his personal preference for children to be raised by a mother and a father wherever possible. However, as an adoptive father himself, McCain believes children deserve loving and caring home environments, and he recognizes that there are many abandoned children who have yet to find homes. McCain believes that in those situations that caring parental figures are better for the child than the alternative.

So, according to McCain, if push comes to shove and it’s a choice between foster home and gay parent we should choose to place the child with a gay parent. So, let me get this straight, he’s only against gay adoption if the child doesn’t actually need adopting? Seriously, that’s what he seems to be saying. That he’s against gay adoption unless the child really really needs to be adopted.

McCain is killing me.

For me, this is it in a nutshell. If McCain said it’s been proved that children do better with two heterosexual parents, then that should be case closed. This is not a gay rights issue. This must be about what’s best for children. But here’s the sad sad truth to all of this, folks. Children don’t vote. Gay people do. That means for politicians, the gays will win every time. Every single time.