Tuesday, May 08, 2012

The Calculating, Cynical President

From Dana Milbank, writing for The Washington Post:
Whatever Obama’s public position, there was little doubt in the briefing room Monday that the president supports gay marriage and that he would go public with this position after Election Day, when he no longer need fear losing independent voters. Carney, who had the unenviable position of trying to convince the press corps otherwise, arrived 35 minutes late for the job and found a feisty audience.

The president has recently taken to saying that his personal views on marriage are "evolving." Alright, if you're in your fifties and you still don't know where you stand on a subject as important as marriage, we're going to have real difficulties. What kind of fixed principles does someone like that have? Frankly, I think Obama has always supported gay "marriage" but realized in 2008 that he had to camouflage it for the sake of his election. By asserting that his views are "evolving," Obama is merely employing a cynical tactic that allows him to dodge being pigeonholed to a particular view that he is not sure will help him politically. It's quite Machiavellian. Now, Obama and his team, Biden, etc., are testing the waters in the run-up to November. But Milbank is right, if Obama wins re-election, his journey of "evolving" on the issue will, what do ya' know, come to a sudden end.

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