Posted on 05/10/2012 8:09:41 AM PDT by SmithL
President Obama's historic move Wednesday to support same-sex marriage could ripple all the way to the November election, helping unite his liberal base while threatening to ignite evangelical voters who have yet to commit to presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, political experts said.
But while the public debate over same-sex marriage has sparked explosive political clashes in the past, observers on both sides said it is unlikely to be a game-changer this year, when the economy is the top issue for most voters.
Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to support same-sex marriage Wednesday during an interview with ABC News. His statement, on the eve of a star-studded fundraising trip to California, came one day after North Carolina voters strongly approved a constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage and civil unions.
"I've been going through an evolution on this issue," Obama told ABC News. "I've always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally."
After talking to friends, his daughters, members of his staff, and gay and lesbian members of the military, Obama said, "it is important for me to go ahead and confirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married."
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who as mayor of San Francisco authorized same-sex marriages in San Francisco City Hall in 2004, said, "If you'd told me two weeks ago he'd do this, I'd never believe it, never."
With closely contested races in swing states likely to decide the presidential election, Newsom called Obama's move extraordinary, marking a level of "courage and conviction that you rarely see at this level of politics."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
observers on both sides said it is unlikely to be a game-changer this year,OH? What just happened in North Carolina?
And even in Blue-State California, many of the same people who turned out to vote for 0bama, also overwhelmingly voted for Prop 8. Now that he's outed himself, he'll lose much of his base.
He did for Romney what millions in attack ads against conservatives could not.
It actually is making people on the right want to vote for Mitt (mostly against O).
Seriously, who on the left that’s “now fired up” wouldn’t have voted for Obama anyway?
On the GOP side, with Romney’s pro-marriage statement, the issue will win him support.
Yep! That'll help Obama greatly in California and NY.
oh, wait...
I got to only the first reply here.....yours.....to see that someone already beat me to it.
You’re dead-on right. These “observers” seem to think that the American public can only think about one thing at a time (being the ignorant rubes that we are, donchaknow).
No, this is going to bite The One squarely on his ass. His gay friends can comfort him all they want after his crushing defeat in November.
We affirmed that marriage is an institution consisting of one man and one woman and no other combination merits that designation.
Guess I misread. I really had the impression you knew, but couldn’t be sure. Sorry.
Since they will not have homosexuality until everyone is nuked and irradiated and neutered, Obama is simply metaphorizing for nuclear war in the near future, or mandated health care neutering.
Planet of the Apes, here we go.
Speaking of which, surprize surprize, this was all a ploy to ambush Romney’s alleged derogatorial statements on gays when he was younger.
I mean, we never hear of such ambush on Obama.
Point is, Obama plaid by the gay rule in the dark and lied, never coming out of the closet, Romney plaid by the rule of the day as they were out there.
Obama never let the memo on the AMerican people about what the game and his game was all about.
But, the sheeple and liberal idiots, will fall trap into it, thinking it is genius to get caught that way, giving him the keys of the game we did not know about.
Interesting how Obama thinks he is going to get away with it, because now that he is in power, he feels confident the game of gay competition is not going to get to him the way it is going to get to us, in the hunger games he set up for all but he got out to play in, getting his way to the presidency with the nice protection of heterosexuals, heterosexuals like Romney.
Ah... Americans are stupid to vote for this only child who would hate to have had a brother or a father, and stomps on anything, because he has never lived but in fear of individuals.
32 states have voted and all said no to homo marriage
equality is what they say means equality for all and that must mean polygamists or any kind of marriage.
obama was forced by Clooney and others because he wanted their money.
Those who were voting for homo agenda were to be voting anyway for Obama.
Those who i have spoke to in the black and hispanic community have said that they will not vote for him and most Hispanics have said that if Rubio or the NM Gov is the VP pick they will vote for Romney.
Most blacks have said they will stay at home and this was the final straw.
Damn right this is a game changer, I thought there was no way we could win this but after his crawling for Hollywood money then i sense a victory
Clooney the homosexuals and the radicals on the left have done us a huge favor and thank you for that
here in FL churches as well as Hispanic and black churches are fired up about this.THey are so pissed off with obama and lets face it.
Those who wanted the homo marriage were voting for their messiah anyway.
This is a great chance to take control of the congress and the white house now
He’s just pissed off millions of people, Catholics, even muslims, Hindu’s etc and if the GOP had a brain they would go to the muslims, in NJ, Jews, in NJ,PA, OH, FL go to Hispanics in FL,NM,AZ,NJ,PA and then blacks here in the south.
This is not a “game-changer”... this is a TOPIC-changer. zer0 does not want to talk about the economic mess so he “bravely comes out” on an issue that everyone already knew his true stance. This is a distraction.
He fired up one side. The side that’s indifferent or opposed to gay marriage. He already had the voters who support it.
All a diversion. IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID.
Just the Uniter-in-Chief making us all love eachother, again. Just like he has has his whole presidency. Yep.
Obummer should divorce Moochie and marry Biden.
Divide, divide, divide! There it is, right in the title of the article:
"Obama backs same-sex marriage, fires up both sides"
Fires up both sides? Obama wants to fire up his base. This is why he did it. It is a sign of desperation. He is losing the young demographic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.