Mr. President, That BackBone You Ordered Is Here
Of all the ways that President Obama could have handled being pushed into a precarious position on the issue of gay marriage by the Vice President, I'm not sure I expected this one. I'm sure some people will now be nervous about how the fallout will affect his re-election prospects. But me? I'm amazed that the President actually seems to have grown a spine, at least on this issue.
Of course, I do understand that it's not right to look at this as being all about politics. The LGBT community has had to wait entirely too long for this kind of an expression of support. At some point, I suppose you have to say to hell with politics and just do what's right. And at this particular moment, I'm not sure I give a damn about the election. I'm proud that President Obama has chosen to take a stand based on principle. Face it, we all pretty much knew what his position on gay marriage was, in spite of all the political tiptoeing he's had to do on the issue. At least now he can be honest about it, with himself and with the country.
Although I'm not taking this for granted, I think that in all likelihood the political fallout will not be all that bad. How many militantly anti-gay voters were really going to vote for President Obama anyway? My guess would be that that number is pretty close to zero. By not expressing support for gay marriage, all that the President was really accomplishing was depriving himself of the enthusiasm and energy of a lot of potential supporters.
I think that same logic carries over into other issues as well. Maybe now President Obama will start to see that. If he really wants another four years in the White House, it would help if he would stop worrying so much about offending people who would never vote for him anyway and instead take a real stand on the issues that are important to his most passionate supporters.
Of course, I do understand that it's not right to look at this as being all about politics. The LGBT community has had to wait entirely too long for this kind of an expression of support. At some point, I suppose you have to say to hell with politics and just do what's right. And at this particular moment, I'm not sure I give a damn about the election. I'm proud that President Obama has chosen to take a stand based on principle. Face it, we all pretty much knew what his position on gay marriage was, in spite of all the political tiptoeing he's had to do on the issue. At least now he can be honest about it, with himself and with the country.
Although I'm not taking this for granted, I think that in all likelihood the political fallout will not be all that bad. How many militantly anti-gay voters were really going to vote for President Obama anyway? My guess would be that that number is pretty close to zero. By not expressing support for gay marriage, all that the President was really accomplishing was depriving himself of the enthusiasm and energy of a lot of potential supporters.
I think that same logic carries over into other issues as well. Maybe now President Obama will start to see that. If he really wants another four years in the White House, it would help if he would stop worrying so much about offending people who would never vote for him anyway and instead take a real stand on the issues that are important to his most passionate supporters.