important to go ahead and affirm that i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. >> reporter: president obama made the announcement wednesday in an interview with abc news. becoming the first sitting u.s. president to publicly support same-sex marriage. his remarks come on the heels of north carolina passing a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. and vice president biden's public support on "meet the press" on sunday. >> i am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual, men and women marrying are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. >> mitt romney reiterated his long standing position on the issue after the president's interview. >> my view is that marriage itself is a relationship between a man and a woman, and that's my own preference. >> reporter: mr. obama once opposed same-sex marriage but says his stance on the issue evolved after conversations with the first lady, his daughters and friends. >> i've always been adamant that gay and lesbian americans should be treated fairly. and equally. >> reporter: in 1996, then illinois senate candidate barack obama supported marriages for same-sex couples. in a questionnaire for a gay newspaper he reported, i favor legalizing same-sex marriages and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages. by 2004, the political climate was demanding clarity. in a debate, obama clarified. >> i believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. >> reporter: that was before this. his 2004 convention speech. >> we coached little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states. >> reporter: and then once in the white house -- >> my feelings about this are constantly evolving. i struggle with this. >> everyone ought to be treated equally and everybody deserves to be able to live and love as they see fit. >> reporter: with the nation split on the issue of same-sex marriage, the president called his endorsement one of personal conviction with less than six months before the election, a decision fraught with political implications. now the president's critics on this issue say that the reason that he decided to make his decision public now is because he wants to raise money for his campaign and also trying to get votes in what is going to be a very tight election. nonetheless, this is becoming part of this campaign, even though when you look at the overall numbers across the country, the economy still is the most important issue before the voters. >> dan lothian, live for us in washington this morning. thank you for that. and the president's evolving views in some ways mirror those of voters as well. popular opinion making a dramatic shift over the last 15 years. take a look at this. since 1996, public approval has risen from 27% to 50%. so what does this mean for presidential politics? joining me now with his take is ron bronstein, cnn's senior political analyst and editorial director of the national journal. thanks for joining us. good morning to you. what do you think is the big takeaway from the president's announcement? >> i think the immediate political impact is patrol the net effect is probably going to be minor in this election for two reasons. there's been a remarkable move in public opinion and more people now oppose consistently -- support in polling than oppose gay marriage but it's slightly more support than oppose. and also this is a year when the economy is going to dominate. in the long run, though, this is a dramatic leap of faith by the president. a bet on the future in two respects. first generationally. two-thirds of americans under 30 support gay marriage. this is clearly a position that's going to grow as overall sense of public opinion. and second, it's an acknowledgment that the democratic coalition has changed. one of the reasons democrats have been reluctant to fully embrace gay marriage similar to issues like immigration reform is that they are fearful of losing the most conservative elements of the white electorate. older whites, rural whites, blue collar whites. this is an acknowledgment that those voters are largely gone and the president and the democrats have to respond to a different coalition. younger voters. more socially liberal. white collar voters. and this is a reflection of his understanding that that is now the coalition that is going to elect him and that he needs to respond to. >> you called it a leap of faith. a lot of people are calling this a very risky move. as they are headed into their re-election here, how do you think it's going to affect them. >> i think it's t reconfirms and hardens the lines, this transformation of the coalition of each party. the political coalitions are held together more by values than interests. more lie culture than class. and you see a strong movement among democrats toward support of gay marriage, for example, as well as abortion and others. 70% of self-identified democrats support this. about 60% of independents. it hasn't moved at all among republicans. what you are going to see is this kind of push further in that direction. i think it adds more problems for the president in groups where he's already struggling like blue collar whites and older whites but probably helps him in places that are holding with him even in this tough times. and that includes more white collar, socially liberal whites and younger people. a wild card are minority voters who tend to be somewhat less supportive. even there there's a big generational change. it's somewhat of a problem in the african-american community but those voters are probably going to stick with him anyway. >> ron brownstein, cnn senior political analyst. thank you for joining us this morning. in the next half hour of "early start" we'll be joined by reverend jamal harrison bryant. we'll talk about how the president's support of same-sex marriage could hurt him with black voters in november. it's seven minutes past 5:00. two deadly explosions rocking syria's capital to tell you about overnight. normally we tell you it is the government bombing its people, but now it looks like the people are getting in some licks themselves. the state-run media says 40 people were killed and 170 injured in a blast during the rush hour in damascus. an opposition group says that syria's intelligence agency was destroyed. the government is blaming, quote, terrorists for these explosions. they come just hours after an activist group was accused the regime forces of killing hundreds of civilians during a cease-fi cease-fire. two fullerton california police officers have been ordered to stand trial for the beating death of a mentally ill homeless man last year. that incident was captured on camera. the officers face charges ranging from second-degree murder to felony use of excessive force. >> from bagging groceries to bagging a thief. coming up, a teenager jumping into action after he sees a shoplifter punch a woman. 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ 11 minutes past the hour. christine romans doing the job for us this morning. >> after his bombshell announcement supporting same-sex marriage, president obama heads west today. he becomes the first u.s. president in history to come out in favor of same-sex marriage. yesterday, the president will be fund-raising in seattle and los angeles today. wrapping things up tonight at actor george clooney's home. reception there is expected to rake in up to $15 million for the president's re-election campaign. that's quite a dinner. a 17-year-old store clerk going all ufc on an attempted shoplifter. putting him in a choke hold, wrestling him to the ground. it's the teenager's first job bagging groceries. he's also in a program that trains young men to become police officers. he says he jumped into action after he saw the thief punch a female store clerk in the face. double elvis has left the building. andy warhol's classic silk screen painting selling for, get this, $37 million at an auction in new york. the piece showing elvis presley in a gun slinging pose is one of warhol's most famous celebrity paintings. warhol made 22 versions of the double elvis. cheaper, cleaner energy. a car company in india has tested cars that run on air. the engine is powered by a tank of compressed air. it was designed by a formula one engineer and costs about $3 to fill up. $3 of air. it goes between 125 miles between fill-ups. does not emit any pollution. may cost less than $10,000. mass producing them might prove difficult. that's the next step. if you are leaving the house right now, watch us on our desktop or mobile phone. go to cnn.com/tv. zoraida? >> thank you, christine. concerns about flooding today in the deep south. rob marciano is tracking today's storms. we got some rain over here as well, rob. >> you do. northeast has it. so does texas. and that's the concern here. just really four or five months ago where we're talking about an extreme drought in this area. last year at this time we had wildfires all over the place. now two to four inches expected on top of what they've already got which is saturated ground. flash flood watches have been posted for parts of texas and also the threat for seeing severe weather today. not only for today but the next few days. a slow-moving system will bump into a front that will create more in the way of showers and storms. you had your showers yesterday and will have them again today. the front that's pushing across the east coast is off the east coast across the south. but across the northeast, it's still hanging around. philadelphia, atlanta city up to new york, over towards fairfield county in through bridgeport, connecticut, providence, boston, you'll keep this. obviously moving slowly from east to west. look for it to end in new york in the next couple of hours, maybe right before the morning rush and then start to dry out in boston later today. rainfall, which you actually do need across parts of the northeast. 77 for a high. 63 degrees expected in new york. 71 degrees in los angeles. i saw this video yesterday afternoon. have to show it this morning for folks who haven't seen it yet. my dad always told me to bring the glove to the game in the event that you get a straight foul ball in order to catch it. this young mannad the padres game managed to find a different way of catching a pop-up. >> right in the suds. >> how about that? come on. >> did he drink the beer? he drinks the beer. >> besides the dirt you've got pitchers are spitting on it and -- that's good stuff. whatever. >> that's a hard core fan there. >> i have no idea where that ball has been so i don't know that i would have done that. >> that beer probably cost 7 or 8 bucks. you don't want to waste the brew. >> thinking about what they do before the pitch. but a guy makes it on national tv. thank you. 15 minutes past the hour. time for the early reads. it's dark out there, folks. and sheriff's deputies, this is a big one. they are being accused of celebrating something they probably should not be. celebrating shootings by getting tattoos. los angeles times is reporting on an investigation of a possible secret clique within the l.a. county gang unit. they got matching tattoos so that they could celebrate their involvement in a shooting. and by the way, i'm being told i used my canadian pronunciation of clique. in the u.s. we would say clique? my canadian is showing. officials say there's no evidence these deputies were involved in anything improper just that they got the tattoos. but the concern now is that the tattoos actually show an admiration for shootings as opposed to maybe more sober attitude. >> i like that your canadian shows, by the way. >> whatever, right? >> 16 minutes past the hour. a high school in arizona forfeited its chance to win the baseball championship because the opponent has a girl on the team. listen to this. i'm so serious. the arizona republic says conservative catholic school our lady of sorrows refused to play against mesa preparatory academy. mesa prep allowed paige to join the team because it doesn't have a girls softball team. paige previously sat out against our lady of sorrows out of respect for the team's beliefs. but she said she did not want to sit out the championship. shame on that school. >> would you not go to the nascar race because danica patrick is racing with the big boys? >> some may not but that is just wrong. >> i'm always sorry to hear that. this is kind of on the funny and kind of what category? she might be fired because the way she decided to punish her students. she decided to use a dog cone. you know the dog cones you use to keep them from scratching. >> she did that to a student? >> our affiliate wfla has the photos of the so-called cone of shame. see this? a student posted these pictured on facebook. the teacher said she intended this all to be a joke and got the idea from the adorable disney pixar movie "up." remember in up? the dog is wearing the cone, right? >> yes. >> and calls it the cone of shame. >> this is outrageous. >> before we decide it's outrageous. on its surface it does look this way. one of the kids forced to wear it thought it was funny. clearly the pictures on facebook might have other people thinking otherwise. and the superintendent wrote a nasty letter saying, uh-uh. so the teacher is going to appeal the school's decision to fire her. >> i don't know if that's ever a good idea, right? it could send the wrong message. >> without question. especially if the kids feel shame, embarrassed. if that's meant to humiliate them. if they were all laughing about it as a group it may be a different story. 18 minutes past the hour. for an expanded look at all of our top stories, thod our blog, cnn.com/earlystart. it's something the are thes say could create 1,000 overnight millionaires. facebook going football. i know that got your attention. so what about the average guy, if you and i want to get into this action? how can we do it? and should you be buying the hype? all that is coming up. 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