President Obama’s decision to come out squarely in favor of same-sex marriage quickly electrified Democrats, progressives and other supporters of marriage equality.

In the midst of his battle for re-election, Obama announced in an interview with ABC News: “I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

Previously, Obama had said only that his views on the issue had been “evolving.”

But with his declaration Wednesday, Democrats and other progressives quickly rallied to the president’s side.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), fired off an email titled “BREAKING: Historic announcement.”

“Today is an historic day in America. This afternoon, President Obama announced his support for marriage equality for all Americans,” Murray says. “I am standing with the President and I hope you will, too. As a result of taking this stand, President Obama will face attacks from every corner of the Republican Party. Everyone from Mitt Romney to the tea partiers will unite behind this issue to try to end his presidency.”

Murray’s email includes a link to an online petition in support of same-sex marriage which the senator encourages recipients to sign.

Democracy For America (DFA), a prominent progressive organization associated with former Vermont governor and 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean, portrayed Obama’s announcement in similar terms.

“This is a huge moment for DFA members who’ve been working towards full marriage equality across the country — in California, in New York, in North Carolina, in Vermont, in Washington and everywhere in between,” says Jim Dean, chairman of DFA and Howard Dean’s brother. “Our work’s not done yet, but this is a huge victory in that fight.”

DFA’s email includes a link to allow Twitter users to tweet their thanks to the president.

Meanwhile, the president himself emailed supporters to explain his sudden outpouring of support.

In the email sent from his 2012 re-election campaign website, Obama described how his thinking had changed.

“I’ve always believed that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally. I was reluctant to use the term marriage because of the very powerful traditions it evokes. And I thought civil union laws that conferred legal rights upon gay and lesbian couples were a solution,” the president says. “But over the course of several years I’ve talked to friends and family about this. I’ve thought about members of my staff in long-term, committed, same-sex relationships who are raising kids together. Through our efforts to end the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, I’ve gotten to know some of the gay and lesbian troops who are serving our country with honor and distinction.

“What I’ve come to realize is that for loving, same-sex couples, the denial of marriage equality means that, in their eyes and the eyes of their children, they are still considered less than full citizens,” Obama says.

Democracy For America has begun to push federal officials to guarantee the First Amendment rights of peaceful Occupy protesters.

Amid escalating clashes between police and those taking part in Occupy protests nationwide, a prominent progressive organization is urging the Justice Department to step in to protect the First Amendment rights of the protesters.

Democracy for America (DFA), associated with former presidential candidate and ex-Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, emailed supporters Wednesday, asking them to sign an online petition to press federal officials to stand up for the protection of those taking part in Occupy.

Established based on Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign operation, DFA in recent weeks has lent its support to Occupy Wall Street and the rest of the Occupy movement. It’s been distributing Occupy-themed yard signs and bumper stickers, collecting donations in support of the movement.

The response of the White House and other top administration officials largely has been muted as incidents have grown involving police and local officials attempting to quash the Occupy protests.

Although he declared that “we have a long and noble tradition of free expression, free speech, and protests and demonstrations in this country,” White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed as “a local law enforcement issue” one such violent incident in Oakland, Calif. That clash left an Iraq war veteran participating in Occupy Oakland seriously injured after police aggressively tried to break up that protest.

The injury to that veteran, Scott Olson, sparked widespread outrage, and left the mayor of Oakland to publicly apologize.

“The truth is: the universal rights of Occupy Wall Street protesters to free speech and assembly are not being protected right now,” says Jim Dean, Howard Dean’s brother and chairman of DFA. “It’s time for our nation’s top law enforcement agency to stand up and defend its own civilians who are under attack — from New York to Oakland and every occupation in between.”

In his email, Jim Dean cites a declaration made by President Obama: “The universal rights of assembly and free speech must be protected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.”

Obama made the statement in support of demonstrations within Iran.

“President Obama has stood up and showed great leadership in demanding that all governments worldwide protect the rights of their people to peacefully protest without harassment,” Dean says. “It’s time for the Obama administration to lead again by demanding those exact same protections for peaceful protestors here in the United States of America.”

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.

The well-established progressive group MoveOn.org plans its own national anti-Wall Street protests, alongside OWS.

In just a few short weeks, Occupy Wall Street has done more than merely spawn hundreds of other Occupy protests across the country and around the world. It’s given birth to an entire movement which has rejuvenated the whole of the American left, almost literally overnight.

Labor unions, progressive advocacy organizations, and others have all rushed to associate themselves with Occupy, and that association has clearly become a two-way street. The unions and others have been supporting Occupy with financial, media, and other forms of support.

But these organizations also very much seem to want to tap into all of this new energy on the left.

Democracy For America, an organization associated with former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, has begun offering yard signs and bumper stickers “co-branded” with its own imprimatur, and that of Occupy.

Famously leaderless and non-hierarchical, there’s no one with the Occupy movement empowered to fight off this potential “infringement” of the Occupy brand.

More recently, though, another Washington progressive heavyweight, MoveOn.org, has taken its association with Occupy Wall Street a step further.

MoveOn.org has begun to plan its own phalanx of anti-Wall Street protests separate from those of the Occupy movement. MoveOn’s calling its brand of protests “Make Wall Street Pay.”

“How is this connected to Occupy Wall Street? Our goal is to launch targeted local campaigns to complement the amazing work being done by brave Occupy Wall Street protesters—-something MoveOn members around the country have been asking for,” Lenore Palladino of MoveOn.org says in an email. “And we’ll continue to do everything we can to support and stand in solidarity with #Occupy.

“There are plenty of ways to take action to Make Wall Street Pay—from helping homeowners facing illegal foreclosures to a campaign encouraging municipalities, schools, and organizations to move their money to local banks to protesting at branches of Wall Street banks,” she says.

In truth, these MoveOn.org demonstrations won’t be the first non-Occupy protests out there, of course. Although Occupy Wall Street clearly has become the most well-known of the protests, it’s never held a monopoly. Others have been demonstrating alongside Occupy.

The New Bottom Line, for instance, is a coalition of community organizations, congregations, labor unions, and others which has been staging demonstrations across the country, to challenge established big bank interests on behalf of struggling and middle-class communities in much the same way as Occupy. However, while the New Bottom Line shares the spirit of Occupy, it’s its own distinct entity.

Occupy, itself, also has accommodated independent groups within its own movement, such as Stop The Machine, which helped establish Occupy DC.

MoveOn.org’s own Wall Street protests could be different in at least one important way, however.

Occupy Wall Street and the other protest groups so far have not only resisted establishing internal leadership hierarchies, they’ve also not not wanted to put forward any specific demands or engage in any significant way with the political process.

It’s not clear that MoveOn.org’s protest apparatus would operate under such constraint. MoveOn.org, after all, was itself established more than a dozen years ago as an effort to try to head off the Republican-led impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Indeed, MoveOn.org today runs its own political action committee (PAC) right in the nation’s capital.

None of this is to say that there is necessarily anything nefarious, or even wrong, in what MoveOn.org is doing.

Any efforts to turn the anti-Wall Street protests toward a more explicitly political agenda — and doing so from within the established Washington progressive establishment — could wind up changing the complexion of the entire movement very quickly.

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.

Democracy For America is offering this Occupy-themed yard sign for a minimum donation.

My neighbor went to Occupy Wall Street, and all I got was this lousy yard sign.

That’s not really true, but it could be.

Official Washington Democrats may still be unsure of how, or whether, to embrace the burgeoning Occupy protest movement, but at least progressive organization has figured out how to cash in on it.

Democracy For America (DFA), the group associated with Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and ex-chairman of the Democratic Party, has begun offering Occupy-themed yard signs for a minimum $16 donation.

Occupy Wall Street has entered the world of merchandising, or “merch” for short, in the parlance of show biz. You know, t-shirts, bobbleheads and the like that fans of a given celebrity, band, or movie might buy or collect.

An Occupy supporter can now essentially buy one of DFA’s “We are the 99%” yard signs the same way a Journey fan might buy a poster or shirt on the way home from one of the band’s sold-out shows.

DFA’s yard signs even come emblazoned with a web page that the organization created just to affiliate with the Occupy movement: www.DemocracyForAmerica.com/occupy

To be fair, however, DFA — which fundraises often for a variety of progressive causes, from individual candidates for Congress, to repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” for instance — says it’s not really out to make buck off the success of the Occupy protests which have spread far and wide.

“Normally we give merchandise away for free, but yard signs are expensive,” says DFA Political Director Charles Chamberlain. “It costs $1.29 to print each sign. It costs $2.50 to package them. It can cost up to $9.75 to ship them, depending on where you live. And when buying signs in large quantities, it costs up to $1,000 just to add a second color to the sign.

“When it’s all said and done — each sign costs $13.76 to print, package and ship directly to your home. So, we’re asking for a contribution of at least $16 to help cover all the costs,” he says.

If folks pitch in more, Chamberlain says DFA will use the additional money to support “our continued involvement, spreading the message, and supporting the people on the ground in New York and beyond who started this bold movement.

“It’s October. In New York, Boston, and even Atlanta, Occupy Wall Street needs sleeping bags, blankets, medical supplies and so much more,” he adds. ”Making a contribution today not only gets you a yard sign so you can show your support, it will help us deliver more of the resources that people on the ground need right now.”

He’s right, of course, Occupiers certainly will need the help, particularly as the colder weather becomes as much an issue for them to remain in their encampments as has various unfriendly political leaders.

Still, one can’t help but see the irony that a movement rooted in anti-corporatism now finds itself the object of some good ol’ fashioned merch.

Scott Nance is the editor and publisher of the news site The Washington Current. He has covered Congress and the federal government for more than a decade.