It's All In The Timing

[howeird]

Obama decided to announce today that he supposes it's okay for men to marry men and women to marry women. I'm going to take off my CynicMan costume for a moment and say it is a lovely sentiment, one with which I completely agree.

He presents me with some semantic difficulties, because with most people who have been brainwashed into a fundamentalist Christian belief system, one would call them born-again. But he was not born a Christian. His mother was a humanist, his father Muslim. As was his step-father. He was mostly raised as a free thinker. His brainwasher, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, despite his other faults, was well known for being a a strong voice against sexism and homophobia.

One would think he has been at least neutral on the subject for most of his life. A puzzlement.

What bothers me about the announcement is it came the day after North Carolina voted to ban gay marriage. And way too late to influence California voters on Prop 8, which is still working its molasses slow way through the court system. And right after he formally launched his presidential campaign.

I'm bothered most because this announcement, 4 years ago, might have led to the repeal of DOMA, when the Democrats owned Congress.

But that's all water under the bridge. He's come out of the closet. Let's see if he takes the next step and assumes a leadership role on this subject. 

Comments

[vasilatos]

i believe he lied about his beliefs to get elected before, that he'll say almost anything to get elected, but this time he's yes come out of the closet about his real beliefs, inasmuch as the timing is such that it will help him get elected again as american attitudes have shifted drastically, a fact of which he is extremely well aware on any number of subjects

[bovil.livejournal.com]

There's certainly calculus involved. Biden's early leak was probably to gauge the base. Obama's got to do something to counteract this center-right record he's built, or he loses a chunk of his base.

Yes, I think McCain was correct when he said America wanted a center-right President, he was just naive about who was in the center-right. What we got the last 4 years, and what the Republicans railed against, is pretty much a 1992 Heritage Foundation agenda. Well, except for the DADT repeal.

Romney's flip-flops are anathema to the anti-flip-flop Republican base. I've already heard of people collecting Romney flip-flops for grassroots Youtube "Before he was against it, he was for it" ad campaigns.