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On gay marriage, Obama will make a change you can believe in - in 2013
?If
there is one thing that we learned in 2008, it?s that nothing is more
powerful than millions of voices calling for change.? -- Barack Obama
on Saturday at his campaign kickoff rally in Columbus, Ohio
The next day, Joe Biden added his voice
(more or less) to the millions calling for change in the laws that ban
gay marriage. Then Monday morning, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a
Chicagoan like the president, endorsed gay marriage
during an MSNBC interview. Before the week is over, it is a safe bet
that other prominent members of the Obama administration--when pressed
by reporters--will join the chorus. That is how a social movement
builds, one public conversion at a time.
In theory, it is
possible for an accomplished grammarian--or a nervous Obama campaign
operative--to parse Biden?s emotional remarks on ?Meet the Press? about
?love? and the ?marriages of lesbians and gay men? and see nothing new.
But such semantic gamesmanship does not explain why Biden felt compelled
to confide to NBC viewers that he was so impressed after recently
meeting the adopted children of a gay couple in Los Angeles that he told
their parents, ?I wish every American could see the look of love those
kids had in their eyes for you guys.? Even though Biden never explicitly
mouthed the four words ?I support gay marriage,? the vice president?s
position could not have been clearer than if he had presided over gay
unions himself.
The president himself is not there yet. In fact, his public views keep evolving at roughly the pace of the Galapagos tortoises that Darwin studied.
The only reference to gay rights in Obama?s new stump speech was
embedded in this line: ?We?re not returning to the days when you could
be kicked out of the United States military just because of who you are
or who you love.? But despite Obama?s current don?t-ask-don?t-tell
equivocation on the subject of gay marriage (he opposes discrimination
against gay couples), everyone can guess the evolutionary miracle that
will occur as soon as the election is over. In 2013, either as a
second-term president or as a private citizen beyond political ambition,
Obama almost certainly will reinvent himself as a supporter of gay
marriage.
Aside from his meetings with Republican members of
Congress, Obama is almost always in rooms where the overwhelming
majority of those present support legalizing gay marriage. A 2011 Gallup
Poll found that more than two-thirds of all Democrats take that position, while a recent Pew Research Center survey put the figure at just under 60 percent.
When you factor in the elite educational pedigrees of the White House
staff and the cultural liberalism of major Democratic donors in
Hollywood and on Wall Street, Obama is completely out of step with his
peer groups with his not-so-fast reluctance on gay marriage.
Obama
is even lagging behind that trail-blazing crusader, *** Cheney. Much
to the dismay of his 2008 liberal supporters, Obama has embraced the
hawkish views of Cheney on targeted assassinations, the unchecked
war-making powers of the president and the necessity to keep the prison
at Guantanamo operating. But when it comes to echoing Cheney?s
surprising support for gay marriage--that is a position currently far
too extreme for an apostle of hope and change like Obama.
What
is striking from the polling on gay marriage is how rapidly attitudes
have changed from passionate opposition to puzzled equivocation to
growing support. According to the polling from the Pew Research Center,
two thirds of all American voters opposed gay marriage in 2004. Now,
just two presidential elections later, extending the institution of
marriage to homosexual couples is supported by a margin of 47 percent to
43 percent. These days, in fact, Republicans are about the only
political group still outraged by the specter of gay marriage: Forty
percent of GOP voters describe themselves as ?strongly opposed? compared to just 19 percent of independents and 14 percent of Democrats.
Even if North Carolina, as expected, votes Tuesday to add a ban on gay marriage
to the state constitution, it should mostly be regarded as a symbol of
rear-guard resistance. The wave of the future can be found in polling
that reveals that more than two thirds of all voters under 30 support
gay marriage. Of course, the president?s campaign team appears to
believe that coming out for gay marriage in the heat of a reelection
campaign would distract from Obama?s inspirational political message:
Mitt Romney?s worse.
If Obama dips into the latest volume of Robert Caro?s Lyndon Johnson biography, ?The Passage of Power,?
he may well pause when he reads LBJ?s reaction to the advisers who
urged political caution about embracing civil rights on the verge of a
presidential election. Johnson snapped, ?Well, what the hell?s the
presidency for??
A close reading of ?The Passage of Power?
reveals that Johnson always understood the importance of political
timing. It would be easy for Obama to conclude that now is simply not
the time to speak out clearly about gay marriage. But mealy-mouthed
evasions and rhetorical obfuscation come at a cost--dampening the
enthusiasm of supporters and frittering away the opportunities provided
by the bully pulpit of the presidency. Obama is fooling no one with his
endless evolutionary pondering of gay marriage. A brave
president--election year or not--might follow the lead of Joe Biden and
actually say what he thinks.
Re: On gay marriage, Obama will make a change you can believe in - in 2013
I'm wondering if the country is approaching that point where it would be more politically expedient for Obama to support gay marriage before re-election rather than after.
I don't think I've ever doubted that he would do it in his second term.
I haven't either. 2013 will be the year.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home Dthis, and honestly it is kind of chickenshit and disappoints me
^ This. But unfortunately I'm not terribly surprised.
Dude, I know! This is where I am with him. What exactly is more important Mr. President? Standing up for the convictions and championing for rights that you assured me were important to you..or being the most popular kid in school.
Yea, I am hugely disappointed.
I am disappointed as I really thought there would be some change in with the hope, but no dice. Balls. He lacks them.
I think it was important for him to focus on the economy, war(s) and healthcare in that order his first term. The second term he can focus on social issues: gay marriage, abortion / war on women, education, etc.
ETA: He wasn't the one that tried to shift the focus away from the immediate top priority issues. I'm not trying to point fingers or start a P&CE war but from my own personal experience - Mark Rubio pretty much talked about the economy and that's it during his campaign. Upon election, his primary focus has been war on women type legislation.
If needed, I'll get links but after lunch. Right now I'm starving.
my read shelf:
I think he's making sure he gets a 2nd term by promising this. It's still shady though.
To be fair, Obama's change on the enforcement of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" was a huge shift (to me), and could be the first step in changing the rights of gays on a federal level. That's a huge "yay."
I do think it could cause a dilemma for him that his people are getting vocal about gay marriage, assuming he wants to wait to tackle this until a possible 2nd term.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home D
Obama has been quite clear that he does not support gay marriage, but supports civil unions with the civil rights of marriage. I doubt he will change his position - now would have been the most opportune time to do so if indeed he had a change of heart.
Stop projecting your "hopes of change" onto him. Believe him when he tells you who he is.
Because elected officials never change their views to suit their political viability.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H4iTtNGjFY4
I am astounded that you typed this sentence in reference to Obama.
Yep. He's a suit standing for a second term if he can get it.
Anyone else thinking of the fictional-albeit-fantastic Let Bartlet Be Bartlet?
Meh, I will always believe that deliberately waiting until your second term to tackle an issue that you say is important to you is douchey behavior. Yes, yes, politicians do it, it's nothing new, he wouldn't get a second term otherwise, but still, it's assy, it's pandering, and it could very well end up being a hollow promise if you don't get a second term.
Plus, even though I know one has to have a huge ass opinion of themselves to run for president, it's still jarring to have someone be so convinced of their own reelection.
Click me, click me!
"Obama is even lagging behind that trail-blazing crusader, *** Cheney. Much to the dismay of his 2008 liberal supporters, Obama has embraced the hawkish views of Cheney on targeted assassinations, the unchecked war-making powers of the president and the necessity to keep the prison at Guantanamo operating. But when it comes to echoing Cheney?s surprising support for gay marriage--that is a position currently far too extreme for an apostle of hope and change like Obama."
Ouch, and touche.
I only wish that we had the radical, liberal President that the right seems to think we have. I, too, have been disappointed with his complete lack of balls throughout his entire first term. Most people I know who voted for him in '08 had swore not to support him again in '12 because of it. Ironically, it was all the over-the-top cray-cray that the Republicans brought in their primary that made us all fall in line again.
This is how I feel, plus I fully admit my bias b/c I've heard all my Obama supporter friends talk for 4+ years about how he's different, and not a regular politician.
PUH-LEASE.
So I think that I hold his actions (or non actions) to a higher standard because of that. If he's so different, and not a regular politician, then he wouldn't play these games with things he believes in.
Ditto. PS I LOVE your siggy. It brightens my day.
This is sort of where I am. And wasn't the Prop 8 mess in 2008? The country was hardly a calm place in terms of having a productive conversation about all that.
Dude was just here today (near DDs daycare, no less) talking about green tech jobs, technical schooling, etc., and praising the "achievements" of all of that so economy/jobs is still a major platform he is running on. It's safe and easy and obvs. NYS eats it up. Gay marriage is still a pretty risky thing to run.
That's not a fair comparison. It's stand up or be out of office and unable to do much on the matter.
He lacks balls, for sure. But let's not minimize the ramifications of what could happen if he stood up for something and was shot down.
But his views have changed. In 1996 when running for state senate he supported legalizing gay marriage. Then as he career moved along he backed away from that and took the more PC stance of separate but equal - civic unions.
I'm not a huge fan of the guy and I agree with HABs summary - it's the game, they all do it, but it lack balls (to paraphrase).
I'm not going to hold my breath and I certainly don't think we'll see it in 2013 or 2014. He can buy himself a lot of time telling people that he is waiting to see what happens at the SCOTUS level and people are going to buy that.
I think Obama is playing it exactly right. If he came out and supported gay marriage at this point, that would be what the right wing would hammer him with for the election. It would be a great rallying cry for the religious right, and it would take the attention away from the current war on women which is something that works in his favor at this point in time.
Why give the ammunition just before the election. I wish he had have legalized it in the first year of his term, sure. But to do it now would just be stupid, IMO.
I see it a little bit differently. Being re-elected wasn't and isn't a given so promising something banking on a second term to pull your ass out of the fire is just a little cowardly in my opinion. You opinions and thoughts shouldn't change based how many terms you think you are going to get.
Do I think a lot that he promised or said he would do could be the death blow to another term, probably....but stay true to your convictions don't just spout off things just to get the vote. I know I am wearing rose colored glasses, but I am looking toward Guantanamo with them.
You're right that re-election isn't a given and so it's not really something to bank on. But he never campaigned for president on legalizing gay marriage and was for civil unions. Whether or not he should have done it then, as Reeve said, it would be foolish to do it now.
Obama has lacked balls for the last 3.5 years and is a masterful politician. I don't know why we'd expect either of those things to change now. I guess I'm just not particularly disturbed by this display, which is exactly how he has been since 2008.
I'm kinda with Sisu on this; it seems like another example of people projecting what they want to see onto Obama. He was never all that liberal/progressive and he has been a politician first and foremost for a while.
Honestly, he has nothing to gain (no one is voting for Romney over this) and everything to lose on making this an issue now. I don't expect people to commit career suicide - especially not on a national stage. Perhaps I'm just too cynical.
Exactly this. Bolded for emphasis. There is only so much time in the day and we all witnessed the long and drawn out battles that have taken place in Washington these last few years. Our country has been brought to the brink of shut down more than once. There is only so much someone can accomplish in our current system. As we have discussed many times, our system is broken, and here is yet another reason why. There is no excuse for the months it took to come to some sort agreement on EVERYTHING. Unfortunately the economy and healthcare are still not completely on track but at least now, if he is re-elected, he will be able to broaden his priorities.
my read shelf: