With the Iowa Caucuses just two weeks away, GOP presidential hopefuls are hitting the campaign stops hard. At the end of a stop last night in the town of Decorah, Governor Rick Perry found himself confronted by a 14 year-old girl asking why the Texas governor was so opposed to gays serving in the military (a theme that was front and center in one of his recent campaign ads.) Perry handled the confrontational question calmly, but in a way that is unlikely to bridge the divide between his supporters and his detractors, particularly on the issue of tolerance of Gay Americans.

MSNBC contributor Krystal Ball slammed Rick Perry‘s new ad blasting gays in the military saying it was a sign his campaign was on the ropes.

Chris Wallace struck back at pundit Ann Coulter‘s criticism of his question to Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Fox Business’s Imus In The Morning. “You know, ever since Ms. Coulter attacked the 9/11 widows and said they were self-promoters, who were enjoying their husband’s death on 9/11, I stopped paying attention to her,” Wallace said.

On Fox News Sunday today, Chris Wallace asked presidential candidate Rick Santorum about the now-infamous Fox News debate where a gay soldier was booed by several members of the crowd and questioned Santorum’s response to the soldier’s question about the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. During the debate, Santorum had stated that the military is not a place for sexual activity, and claimed ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was the government “trying to inject social policy into the military.

Like many who woke up this morning to the news that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was history, Jon Stewart spent some time celebrating the aftermath of the repeal. Calling the policy “ridiculous,” Stewart turned to Jason Jones for his military analysis, who, regaled in short-shorts and drinking a fancy pink cocktail, tried to make the news exciting but couldn’t find a way to make it seem particularly eventful, other than the poignant coming out moments today has produced.

“Hey, can I tell you something?” asks the young soldier, his voice shaking.

That’s the moment that comes shortly into a video on YouTube in which an active duty soldier finally comes out to his father over the phone. The video was recorded mere hours after Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was finally repealed, allowing homosexual US servicemen and women to serve openly and, while we can read the statements from the President hailing the defeat of the “discriminatory law” and hear about the large parties that took place last night at midnight, nothing will spell out just how large a moment this is better than watching the look on the young man’s face as his father tells him he loves him.

This afternoon, President Barack Obama joined Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Admiral Mike Mullen to formally end the controversial ban on openly gay individuals serving in the U.S. military. The President signed and sent a notice to Congress certifying that repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will not have an adverse impact on military readiness. As such, the repeal will be put into effect in 60 days’ time, on September 20th

On CNN’s AC 360 Tuesday night, Anderson Cooper put a lady named Cindy Jacobs on his “RidicuList.” Who is Cindy Jacobs? Oh, just you wait.

Jacobs is a video-making self-described “respected prophet” of a ministry called Generals International, and she believes the aflockalypse deaths of thousands of birds in Arkansas and other places recent weeks has an easily-determined cause: the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Yep, it’s that simple. The nation did wrong, and we’re getting a kind of dead-bird pushback:

Earlier today, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin caused a stir with a retweet that many read as a cryptic indicator that the Mama Grizzly was poised to come out in favor of some gay rights. Prominent Palin fansite Conservatives4Palin.com, however, has swooped in to defend her honor, noting that Palin’s retweet of Tammy Bruce‘s sentiment, “But this hypocrisy is just truly too much. Enuf already–the more someone complains about the homos the more we should look under their bed,” doesn’t indicate support for gay rights. I’m inclined to agree.

Conservative radio host and proud lesbian Tammy Bruce joined the discussion about Navy Capt. Owen Honors and his controversially homophobic videos shown to his Navy crew, by tweeting, “But this hypocrisy is just truly too much. Enuf already–the more someone complains about the homos the more we should look under their bed.” Sarah Palin, who has not spoken out on the issue of “don’t ask don’t tell” or any gay issues really, re-tweeted Bruce’s message, thus leaving us to speculate about the meaning of this retweet heard ’round the world.

President Obama held a year-end press conference today, and some might have mistook it for a victory lap. The White House had reason to be happy given how they rebounded from a tough mid-term election to pass a lot of legislation during a lame-duck session. ABC News’ Jake Tapper focused on the passing of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, but immediaitely tying it to the looming issue of gay marriage. Obama’s response seemed to keep open the possibility that the Administration’s position might in fact be evolving.

Yesterday Senator Lindsey Graham complained to Fox News radio that the GOP had effectively capitulated to the White House on a number of policies during the lame-duck session, that “wouldn’t have passed in the new Congress.” In fact, the last week and a half have been good to President Obama as he’s seen the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Education reform, and the anticipated ratifying of the START treaty. This morning ABC News’ Jake Tapper reports that this is all part of a new bipartisan approach from the White House that could spell more political victories to come.

Sen. John McCain has come under a good deal of fire lately for taking political positions many feel compromise his principles, and it’s safe to say you can count Chris Matthews among them. In fact, Matthews asked point blank earlier today, in the wake of McCain stands like opposition to ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and opposition to the DREAM Act: “What happened to John McCain?”

With Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell finally meeting its demise this past weekend, many have been curious to see how our armed forces would handle the change. Prior to the historic vote on Saturday, some people made rather condescending theories that our military would be thrown into utter chaos. Others predicted that the soldiers and superiors would react with class and professionalism. A Redditor who happens to also be in the Air Force, uploaded a screen shot of an email he or she received along with all the other service men and women and it proves, shocker of shockers, that the latter appears to be true.

On Saturday, December 18, 2010, the US Senate passed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 by a 65-31 margin, clearing the way for President Obama to fulfill a promise that many have seen as too long in coming. While the White House has maintained all along that a legislative repeal was the only “durable solution,” many, myself included, felt that the President should have put a moratorium on DADT discharges until such a repeal could be enacted.

Had he done so, however, it’s very likely that the President would not, now, be poised to sign that legislative repeal into law.

The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank slams Senator John McCain in his column today, honing in on McCain’s passionate speech on the floor of the Senate yesterday before the final vote that eventually repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Milbank argues McCain’s speech yesterday showed an over-the-top level of rage.

With this repeal, the process is set in motion to, for the first time in U.S. history, allow gays to serve openly in the military without having to hide their sexual orientation. Under President Bill Clinton‘s “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, men and women in service were required to stay silent about their sexuality, and [...]

Senator Joseph Lieberman promised movement in the Senate on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and he delivered a filibuster-proof majority vote of 63-33 on the procedural issue to advance the bill. The ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in uniform is now one step closer to being repealed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid withdrew [...]

Today on ABC’s This Week, Christiane Amanpour played host to a spirited debate over DADT with a panel of military experts, insiders, and veterans on both sides of the issue. The panel included Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis, of the Family Research Council, and Elaine Donnelly, founder and president of the Center for Military Readiness, both of whom oppose the repeal of DADT. Supporting the repeal on the panel were Clarke Cooper, an active Army reservist and executive director of the group Log Cabin Republicans, Tammy Schultz, director of the national security and joint warfare at the Marine Corps War College; and General Wesley Clark, the former NATO commander.

Yesterday the Senate’s Armed Services committee held a hearing regarding the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, during which Senator John McCain expressed concern that military leaders had not taken into consideration the views of their subordinates on an issue of this magnitude. Jon Stewart rebuffed this notion by holding up the results of the detailed survey, then followed with classic clips of McCain lauding his own “maverick” style of leadership in which he’s ostensibly spurned the views of his subordinates.

Make no mistake: Senator Scott Brown is a smart man. He is a practicing lawyer who’s had a very successful career and was elected to replace Senator Ted Kennedy earlier this year. So it is a bit odd that during tioday’s Senate Armed Services Committee meeting over the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Senator Brown asked a witness to explain “what does expedited mean?” Surely he knows the definition. Or was he playing to a potentially confused audience of 50 or so CSPAN viewers (a demographic that almost certainly understand what “expedited” means)?

A just-released Pentagon study on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell–covered live on all cable nets–finds overturning DADT would not cause any longterm problems for the American military.

“A strong majority (of American troops surveyed)–more than two thirds–do not object to gays and lesbians serving openly in the military,” said Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who introduced the survey’s results alonside Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

This should really be titled “Don’t Ask McCain Anything, Don’t Tell Him He’s Irrelevant.” John McCain’s stand on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell changes too frequently to document although both Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart have tried in the past. Many seem sick of hearing about Sarah Palin in the news lately, and McCain’s position of the week on this issue is just as tiresome. Palin and McCain are continually able to grab headlines though, no matter how trivial their statements are, precisely because a listless President Obama has left the media spotlight open for the taking.

The latest survey conducted by Quinnipiac University’s Polling Institute has found that for the first time, a majority of respondents believe the U.S. should not be involved in Afghanistan. 50 percent of the American voters polled are opposed to the war, while 44 percent answered that the U.S. is “doing the right thing” in Afghanistan.

Senator John McCain and his wife Cindy appear to be on different sides of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: Ms. McCain recently recorded a spot for a “NOH8″ campaign that was a blatant critique of the policy of no openly gay military members, but then clarified via Twitter that she still supported her husband’s stance against reforming the controversial policy. This was perfect fodder for The Daily Show‘s host Jon Stewart, who presented a very similar case against McCain has Rachel Maddow did earlier in the evening.