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Gary Bauer, president of the conservative advocacy group American Values, expounded on those sentiments in an interview.

"His comments were inartful and disappointing. The 10th Amendment and states' rights is very important to conservatives, but it's not our highest value," Bauer said. "There are some things so fundamentally wrong that we have not left those things up to the states."

Bauer added, "The governor also seemed unaware that the threat we are facing is the same-sex laws of New York and Massachusetts being forced on the whole country. So I think he still has great potential, but I think it's a sign that even if you are a governor, the transition to the presidential sweepstakes requires a lot of study and understanding the nuances of these issues."

Bob Vander Plaats, president of the Iowa Family Leader, another conservative advocacy group, was slightly less critical but figured that Perry will want to clear up his comments.

"I hope it's more of an education issue to understand this is going to a federal level," he said, adding, "Many of us advocated for states' rights and were big 10th Amendment people, but when it comes to things like whether its slavery, and abortion, or marriage, we're not saying, ‘Well it's OK to have slavery in Alabama but not Iowa.' And our group wouldn't say, ‘It's OK to have abortion in the state of Washington but not in Iowa.' Some things are right and some things are wrong, and especially when it comes to marriage, it's a foundation block and a building block for society."

Vander Plaats warned, "I think there's a lot of excitement about his potential energy, but as the excitement heightens, the scrutiny will also heighten. So the remarks in Aspen no longer stay in Aspen. Some people are going to ask, ‘Where do you stand?' "

And as leading conservative activist Ralph Reed -- the founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition -- said in an interview Monday, Perry will have to say upon becoming a candidate whether he would support a Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution.

"My expectation is that he is for it," Reed said. "If he is, end of story."

Nevertheless, as Smith put it, "Perry was sounding a lot like Jon Huntsman, who was supposed to be the liberal in the race."

For his part, Huntsman has said he does not believe traditional marriage should be redefined, but he also led the charge to legalize civil unions in his home state. He told the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody recently, "Subordinate to traditional marriage -- one man, one woman -- I think we sometimes don't do an adequate job in talking about equality and in addressing fairness: hospital visitations, reciprocal beneficiary rights, insurance. There are a lot of these issues that I think we can do better with as people in the name of fairness and in the name of equality."

In a CNN debate in New Hampshire in June, Bachmann said, "I don't see that it's the role of a president to go into states and interfere with their state law." She spoke of her personal support for traditional marriage and said that a federal amendment would require state ratification, so that would be acceptable to her -- leaving herself some wiggle room and leaving some debate watchers confused about her position.

Still, Bauer intimated that socially conservative voters might be more comfortable with her stance than Perry's given her caveat.

"She didn't say anything like ‘that's fine with me.' I have no doubt what Michele Bachmann would do if [the Defense of Marriage Act] comes back up for a vote in Congress, nor do I have any doubt what she would do in Minnesota when the state addresses the issue there," he said. "And I don't have any doubt that Perry would oppose same-sex marriage in Texas. What I would not want to see is a trend where states' rights becomes the knee-jerk answer, even on matters that fundamentally oppose other parts of the Republican platform."

Of course, the battle in the Republican primary over the issue is just a warm-up before the general election, where President Obama has begun to modulate his own position. What's more, eight Republican senators favored the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" late last year.

"It's going to be an issue because Obama has said his views ‘are evolving on this,' whatever that means" Reed said. "It's going to be an issue in 2012, but there isn't going to be a huge change in the Republican Party, and our nominee will support traditional marriage."

Added Bauer, "I have no doubt that by the time of the presidential election next year, it'll be clear that the president wants to maneuver to have nationwide same-sex marriage and that the Republican presidential candidate is diametrically opposed."