Gay Marriage No Brainer

Barack Obama has just come out, so to speak, in favor of gay marriage to correct of the awkward balancing act he has been trying to perform over the past few days. Not exactly leading on an issue that a plurality of Americans are in favor of, but good for him. Like having children, there was no perfect time to make the announcement, but he should have known two things. First, there was no blowback in his repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Second, if the Republicans wanted to make his support of gay marriage an issue, they would have done it by now. Republicans have no problem lying (death panels, abortion is 90% of what Planned Parenthood does etc.) As soon as Obama instructed the Justice Department to stop defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, Republicans would have hammered him with the label of "pro-gay marriage" but they have not, and in all fairness, they would not have been lying. It was Obama that was lying all along. Who really believed that Obama was not secretly in favor of gay marriage?

Leadership is never a bad gamble and it's not a bad gamble in this case. After Californians voted for the California Marriage Protection Act in 2008, there seemed to be some voter's remorse. Just yesterday, North Carolina voted to pass a constitutional amendment restricting marriage. The conventional wisdom was that Obama has spent all his time hedging on gay marriage as not to defend states that he carried in 2008 like North Carolina. But coinciding with the vote in North Carolina, Joe Biden and education secretary Arne Duncan publicly admitted being in favor of gay marriage this week forcing the prez's hand. Being the mature statesman, Obama had no choice but to make what was clear clear. By November, there will surely be North Carolina voters that will feel left behind on the issue of marriage equality. In other words, just like in California, there will be voter's remorse in North Carolina. That will help Obama.

Is there a chance he will be hurt by it? Only if the economy gets better. As long as the money sector seems stalled, the Republican establishment is determined to focus on that and not social issues, which is what cleared the field of the Bachmanns and Santorums this primary season (not to mention their insanity). But if people feel the economy is on the rebound, they tend to feel more generous, socially. The only giddy Republicans are the ones on the far right who are clearly on the loosing side as polls have consistently showed over the past twelve or so years.

2 comments:

  1. I think Biden and Duncan were put out there as strawmen to see what the reaction was going to be. If there was a lot of blowback they would have said , "there goes crazy Joe again" and the prez wuld kept himself in cover.

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