Perhaps I am being impatient, but in a 24-hour news cycle it’s noticeable that conservative websites and blogs have not yet commented on news that Governor John Baldacci has signed a bill making Maine the fifth state in the union to legalize same-sex marriage. You would think the fact that fully 10% of American states now have laws enshrining marriage equality, would be newsworthy? Apparently not to the conservative blogosphere.

Drudge Report makes no mention of the news out of Maine — however, he does make space, not once but twice, for a story about a man who placed electric dog collars on his kids. Likewise, the Corner at the National Review Online is silent on the day’s development. Nothing from NOM, FOTF, or any of the usual suspects.

What gives? What does all this silence mean?

1) The Right is coordinating a response and we will see the results begin to appear in the press within the week.

2) The Right has realized the more they talk about same-sex marriage, the more Americans think about marriage equality. The more Americans think about marriage equality, the more inclined they are to support same-sex marriage.

I’ve never been a huge conspiracy theorist, so I suggest the latter to be true. It’s glaringly apparent, to me at least, that conservatives are beginning to understand there is truly, really, actually a lot of support across the country for allowing same-sex couples to enter into marriage. Furthermore, those same conservatives are beginning to understand their own shrill protestations against equality are only contributing to the speed with which equality is spreading. I take the Right’s media silence as tacit acknowledgement of that fact.

Does this mean the Right is throwing in the towel? No, not at all. But I think we are entering a quieter phase of the debate, at least from the side of the Right.