This really isn’t news except insofar as he has overtly said it. Everyone has always known that he supports gay marriage. He just hasn’t been able to say so because he has a tough re-election coming up and he doesn’t want to lose votes in some of the more bigoted swing states. Unfortunately, Joe Biden made a “gaff” (that is, he told the truth) by saying he was comfortable with gay marriage. That forced the President’s hand:
“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Roberts, in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday.
There is a clip of the interview available at the above link. I would embed a YouTube video, but ABC news has disabled embedding and the other clips will probably disappear shortly. Because corporate America is filled with assholes. But I digress.
I’m glad President Obama supports gay marriage, but I think my liberal brethren have made a mistake by pushing the issue. It was always obvious the President supported equal rights but that he was holding back on saying so until after November. His stance is a vote-loser in many of the bigoted southern swing states. The jostling here has only served to put gay marriage in more danger.
Filed under: News, Same-sex marriage | Tagged: gay marriage, Joe Biden, President Obama |
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The only southern swing state where this is likely to be an issue is Virginia, as far as I can tell. (Obama’s strong showings in North Carolina and Missouri were, let’s face it, flukes.) Ohio, however . . .
More important than winning the only real southern swing state (which Obama doesn’t need to win anyway) is having a candidate who doesn’t act as though he thinks the public are morons. It took a lot of balls to end the whole wink-wink-nudge-nudge routine, and I’m glad he finally did.
Honestly, I think you’re being naive. President Obama said at the time he took office that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that he based that view on his religious upbringing.
You feel like you are giving him a compliment for secretly supporting gay marriage all this time. That is to say, you are saying he is like George Wallace of Alabama who fought for segregation and racism, but secretly opposed it. You are saying he is willing to do something he knows is wrong and immoral to gain votes. That’s a worse view of his character than anything I’ve ever written.
That’s idiotic, Michael. His stance hasn’t mattered in the least during his first term, so your analogy to George Wallace is either plainly ignorant and uninformed or just outright stupid.
Let me know when you need a summary of what has been said.
Here’s some news, marriage isn’t the business of the federal government, so who cares what the president thinks.
However, I do think other Michael has a point that he is just out to get a few votes. There isn’t anything wrong with that, I imagine that’s why he really held off taking a serious position before this. It isn’t going to make a difference. Even among the gay population I have to imagine that they hold other things to be more important, at least on the whole.
The places where this will get him more votes than it will lose him are on the coasts and in the North. It’s going to lose him votes in swing states. He never would have touched the issue had Biden not slipped up.
But hey, maybe it’s all a big conspiracy. It was a set up to have Biden get asked a particular question on a Sunday morning news program, to have him give a particular answer, to have a press release disavowing what he said, to have the Press Secretary dance with the issue, then to finally come out and say he supports gay marriage. That’s far more likely than anything else.
I highly doubt he is going to win or lose any significant number of votes because of this. The millions of unemployed, for better or for worse, almost certainly care about the economy more than gay marriage.
You sort of said this, but even if he does gain or lose a significant number of votes, it’s not going to change anything. Not a single electoral vote.
It won’t make a difference in the places where his stance will be beneficial vote-wise, such as the Northeast. He’s going to win those states no matter what. However, I do think it will hurt him in places like North Carolina and Virginia.
Not to be cynical, but it helps in one big area: money. Democratic candidates regularly fly out to Los Angeles, scoop up boatloads of cash, and leave. Republicans have a snowball’s chance on Venus to pick up California, so this makes sense in increasing money supply. And it will have 0 effect on who will vote or not vote for Obama, so the vast middle who haven’t made up their minds, having more cash is better.
I don’t know, that’s my humble opinion.
How convenient that he chose to make a stand after the issue was off the ballot. Heaven forbid he actually say something in support of it when it actually matters. Where was his support during the Proposition 8 fight? Where was he when NC was voting on it? When Texas was voting on it. It’s easy to say you support something, but ACTUALLY SUPPORTING IT would go a long way toward backing up his claims. Wake me when he actually does something to advance the gay marriage agenda. Until then, it’s just empty lip service, like so much of his administration has been.
Again, again, again: Biden forced the issue just a few days ago.
MH, I disagree with that analysis. I think we don’t get enough credit to Biden (I mean, he did go to Syracuse University, where I got my Ph.D.); I think this was a well-planned series of events. I was once told by one of our great modern politicians that in Washington, not everything appears to be what it really is.
I’m not about to believe that the White House conspired with a reporter to ask Biden this question so that the Press Secretary and others in the administration could scramble for two and a half days before the President came out with a position he has otherwise been avoiding discussing entirely.
This is that behind the curve thing I mentioned yesterday. Now I’m 6 comments back and if there had been a lot of progress made on subject matter I wouldn’t bother.
With that said, I don’t have much else to add. I agree with you that there is no conspiracy and by blaming Biden, also known as the USS Gaff, you seem to be agreeing that whatever his stance has been or was he’s been forced to address a matter that he was either to cowardly to take up or (more likely) that had been politically calculated not to be rich in votes.
Not that many people are going to remember in a month, to say nothing of down the road in November.