It's not as complicated (or as contradictory) as most here are making it out to be:
1. A married, heterosexual, two-parent family is the best setting for raising a child.
2. Marriage should be used to encourage the best possible kind of setting for raising children.
3. (1) is not always possible, and it's OK to allow other kinds of families to raise children, even though these arrangements are less than ideal.
The problem with the position is that empirical evidence demonstrates that a least the "heterosexual" part of point one is bunk, but that's not really the point being discussed here.
I think Nix pretty much has it right here. Best does not mean only, especially for a person like Mitt who often sees issues in shades of gray rather than black and white. His shading of the issues is exactly what gets him in trouble with the base, but it's generally a good quality for a top administrator. Top execs who treat all issues in a black and white fashion box themselves into positions that hurt their organizations. Mitt will struggle throughout the campaign as he tries to produce simple sound bites while recognizing internally the complexity of an issue.
