Will Republicans ‘evolve’ on gay marriage too? A respected Republican pollster wrote in a memo leaked over the weekend that public opinion is quickly shifting in favor of same-sex marriage — by 5 percent a year since 2010 — and that the GOP needs to change with the times. Is there any chance the GOP will follow his advice?

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When Obama endorsed legal gay marriage this week, he cited his daughters Sasha and Malia as factors in his evolving stance, noting that some of their friends have gay parents in admirably committed relationships. That was enough to provoke Bristol Palin, who fired off a blog post chiding Obama for being influenced by what “teenagers think after one too many episodes of Glee.” Instead, she said, the president should have explained “to Malia and Sasha that, while [their] friends’ parents are no doubt lovely people, that’s not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage.”

This isn’t the first time Bristol has written an open letter to Obama, nor is it the first time she’s stirred up controversy. Here, a brief history of Palin’s notable flaps:

• February 16, 2009 — In her first interview since giving birth, Bristol tells Fox News  that abstinence policies are simply “not realistic at all.”
   
• May 6, 2009 — Now a pro-abstinence spokesperson, Bristol says on Good Morning America that “regardless of what I did personally, I just think that abstinence is the only… 100 percent foolproof way to prevent pregnancy.” She insists her February statement was taken out of context.
   
• Jan. 27, 2011 — Washington University in St. Louis disinvites Bristol from a “Sex Week” panel discussion on abstinence. Students had objected to Palin’s keynote speech and, especially, her proposed $20,000 fee. It’s not like she brings a “unique and engaging perspective” to the topic, says Sean Janda at Student Life.
   
• April 5, 2011 — Tax documents show that, as an abstinence ambassador for the Candie’s Foundation, Bristol earned $262,000 in 2010, while in the same period the foundation spent just $35,000 on grants to health and counseling clinics for pregnant teenagers. “For every dollar Bristol gave to the cause, she gave $7.50 to herself,” says E.D. Kain at Forbes.
   
• May 3, 2011 — Bristol hits the red carpet at the Candie’s Foundation benefit gala in New York, sporting a new look — or more specifically, a new face. Rumors abound that she had plastic surgery on her nose, chin, jaw, and cheeks. Palin responds that she had medically necessary “corrective jaw surgery” that, along with a liquid diet, incidentally “improved the way I look.”
   
• Sept. 22, 2011 — Palin gets in a shouting match with a fellow patron at a West Hollywood watering hole. After Bristol falls off the mechanical bull she was riding, a man insults her and her mother, using crass language. Why don’t you like my mom? Bristol shot back. “Is it because you’re a homosexual and that’s why you hate her?”

But wait, there’s more… 

Meet Rep. Bob Dold, the Republican trying to save Planned Parenthood. The Illinois politician wants to keep taxpayer dollars trickling to the women’s health organization the GOP loves to hate. He’s introduced a bill that would prevent agencies and governments from denying it family-planning dollars just because it offers abortion services. 

Who is this guy, and will lawmakers approve his bill? 

Two years ago, most Americans had never heard of Marco Rubio. Now, the eloquent, Tea-Party-backed, disco-despising Florida senator is a top contender for MItt Romney’s VP slot. Here, some things you might not know about him:

1. Rubio’s parents fled Cuba… before Castro
   In campaign speeches, and on his Senate website, Rubio has described himself as the son of “exiles from Castro’s Cuba.” But he had to backpedal when reporters discovered that his family actually left Cuba for Florida in 1956, while Fidel Castro was still plotting his revolution from Mexico. Rubio’s family history has since been picked through by the media.
    
2. His grandfather was ordered deported
   Another wrinkle in Rubio’s family history emerged on Wednesday: According to a book excerpt published by Politico, U.S. authorities wanted to deport his maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia in 1962, but Garcia stayed in the U.S. anyway. The upcoming biography on Rubio by Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia says Garcia’s legal status was murky for years — a potentially problematic biographical detail in a political party dominated by conservatives who want to crack down on illegal immigration.
    
3. Rubio was baptized a Mormon…
   When Marco Rubio was 7 or 8, his family moved to Las Vegas. After the move, Marco, his mother, and sister Veronica, who were Catholics, were baptized as Mormons, encouraged by an aunt who had already converted. Marco was an active participant in his new church. “He was totally into it,” cousin Michelle Denis tells BuzzFeed. But Rubio’s father, a bartender, “couldn’t embrace a faith that wouldn’t let him drink and smoke,” according to Roig-Franzia’s biography.
    
4. …Then embraced Catholicism again
   When Rubio’s family returned to Miami, Rubio, his mother, and sister converted back to Catholicism. The future senator received his first communion at 13. “He really convinced the whole family to switch religions,” Michelle Denis tells Buzzfeed. “He’s very vocal so he convinced them all to become Catholic.” 

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In 1998, after months of mysterious weakness and numbness, Ann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an often debilitating neurological disorder. She took steroids to stabilize the disease, but now relies mostly on a combination of alternative treatments, including acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, and her“joy therapy,” horseback riding. She has become quite skilled at dressage, a form of horse training and riding involving “seven-figure horses and four-figure saddles,” and competes at amateur and even professional-level competitions, winning several medals. She’s so into her hobby-therapy that son Josh Romney got his father a horse mask for Christmas in 1996, with the advice: “Maybe Mom will pay as much attention to you as she does to the horses.”

Many Americans still know very little about the wife of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Here, 7 surprising facts about Ann Romney