CNN talked to campaign advisor Steve Schmidt, who spoke to the Log Cabin Republicans today and stated his support for marriage equality, saying the Republican party needs to embrace it.Watch CNN's report and read the full text of Schmidt's speech, AFTER THE JUMP...FULL TEXT OF STEVE SCHMIDT'S SPEECHThank you for that introduction, and for your invitation to join youtoday.  I haven’t done much public speaking since the election.  Ihaven’t done any, in fact.  But over five months have passed since theelection, and in gratitude for your contributions to our party and outof concern for its future success, I appreciate this opportunity toshare a few thoughts with you about the direction I hope our partytakes as it seeks to recover the support and trust of the Americanpeople.To state the obvious: the Republican Party needs to grow.  A reviewof the exit polls and current demographic trends in the United Statesshould make it clear to all but the most determined optimist that ourcoalition is shrinking, and losing ground with segments of thepopulation that are growing.  Whether it’s with suburban voters,working class voters, college educated voters, Hispanics or left handedAlbanian psychics, the percentage voting Republican has declined. Perhaps, the most alarming of these various and generally worryingresults of the last election is the huge margin by which we lost votersunder 30.  Having said that, it is not a foregone conclusion these are longterm trends or even trends at all.  They might just be the results oftwo lost elections, although I doubt it.  And even if they do representmovement toward a center left political realignment, unanticipatedevents could arrest or begin to reverse them even in the near term.  Political scientists and campaign consultants tend not to accountfor contingency when they are busy predicting the future. The McCaincampaign, for instance, initially thought our most difficult problemwould be the war in Iraq, an assumption we made based on exit pollsfrom t...