Posted on 01/20/2012 10:02:18 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
From Washington Blade:
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Friday he wouldn’t rule “in or out” the possibility of President Obama endorsing same-sex marriage in the upcoming State of the Union address.
Carney made the remarks on whether Obama would announce support for marriage equality during the State of the Union address, which is set to take place Tuesday before a joint session of Congress, in response to a question from the Washington Blade.
“I will not rule anything in or out,” Carney said. “I’m just not going to talk about — beyond pointing at his words — his personal views on this. I think his administration’s policies on related issues are there for people to judge.”
Most people of reasonable intelligence and common sense have long figured that the President’s declared ambivalence about gay marriage was a crock; and I think more than a few others were, like myself, of the opinion that he’d throw his weight behind SSM if he were lucky enough to get a second term. The assumption behind that supposition and that scenario is that there’s no upside to the President publicly endorsing the normative definition of marriage of his class, and that there was considerable downside in his doing so.
None other than Dan Savage himself explained why:
While national polls show a slim majority of Americans now support marriage equality, supporters of marriage equality aren’t evenly distributed throughout all 50 states. They’re over-represented in populous blue states that Obama is going to carry, under-represented in purple states that he needs to carry, and thin in the ground in red states that he has no hope of carrying. Electoral College Goddam. And maybe I’m a pessimist… but… I don’t think Obama endorsing marriage equality would convince any Republicans who support marriage equality (all six of them) to vote for him, I don’t think it by itself would convince independents to vote for him, and I think it would convince some conservative Democrats to vote against him.
What I think we’re all forgetting — or couldn’t have known all the way back in 2011, when Savage wrote the above — is that, in an almost deliciously ironic twist, Team Obama has decided to run in 2012 a base-centric campaign the likes of which we haven’t seen since… well, the last time an embattled and divisive President was going for reelection. And that’s pretty interesting in and of itself; it used to be the absolute most ironclad conventional wisdom of American politics that one could not win the White House unless one tilted (sometimes to the point of becoming horizontal) to the median voter.
But this country’s political system has changed dramatically in the past generation, and the mushy middle has increasingly receded as voters gravitated towards one ideological pole or another. In a more or less evenly-divided country, playing towards the base — implementing the Rovian 50%+1 strategy — makes a lot of sense. Still, we’re slow to recognize the kind of sociological change this would reflect, and generally we only see it for what it is after it’s long been standing in front of our noses.
When you look at the girls the little one doesn’t look like either parent. The older one looks sorta like BHO. Its strange usually kids look like their parents.
Given the reports that Mickey is a hostile wife and spends little time with her “husband” just adds to the curiosity. When they are together, it just looks faked.
Even Bill and Hillary actually looked at each other and touched, they have a really weird marriage to be sure, people around them say they really do love each other.
People around BHO and Mickey never mention their marriage, I find that strange.
Excellent - especially when it polls 65% against with the general public....
O’bummer, the gift that keeps on giving...
What’s this “we”, white man?
At least 65%! This is a collosal mistake for Zobama and a windfall for the RePubs. The Repub PR machine ought to go something like:
He turned down the XL pipeline that would bring more oil independents to America and 100,000 jobs, but...
He is pushing for all those gay men and women to marry each other, unemployed or not.
CBS has a video of the exchange, which shows Gingrich saying that if gay marriage is the only issue a voter cares about, they should support Obama.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7392399n
You’re right - it would make a great line of attack for the pub nominee...
But if history repeats, the Stooopid Party will just be as ineffective this round as they were in 2008...
my pessimistic side speaking this AM.
A-hole is just getting warmed up.
He will sign an executive order giving amnesty to all illegals before the end of his term. Especially if he loses in ‘12.
Just you watch.
If he loses, the period between 11-6-12 and 1-20-13 will be extremely dangerous for what he does bit overtly and covertly.
He’s simply Evil and evil is as evil does. Forest Gump could figurte that out.
That’s right, you flap-eared, pencil-necked, mincing abomination....bring the wrath of God completely down on this country.
Yes, California, the bluest of the blue states voted down gay marriage. Most Americans don't understand the issues and are confusing gay marriage with gay unions.
How nice of Obama to introduce a wedge issue which will keep on giving throughout he election. Gay marriage is a state issue that a president can do little about.
Exactly. We all know that Maobama has lied from the beginning when he says he believes that marriage consists of a man and a woman. He only says so because he doesn’t want to lose any of the black churchgoers’ votes. So what does he stand to gain now by doing otherwise?
It means that Larry Sinclair will be our new First Lady.
No, polygamy. Didn’t you get that e-mail?
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