Is Obama's position on gay marriage sustainable?

[Dos Equis]

I think the short answer is "no."  He ought to just be intellectually honest and stop lying about his support for the preservation of traditional marriage. 

Is Obama's position on gay marriage sustainable?

That seems to be one of the core political questions in the wake of the overturning of Proposition 8. How can the president continue opposing gay marriage while supporting the decision to strike down Prop 8, on the grounds that it's "discriminatory," as the White House said in a statement last night?

Making it more dicey, the White House statement also said that the president continues to push for "full equality" for gay and lesbian couples. How can that not include support for gay marriage?

This morning, senior White House adviser David Axelrod struggled to defend this position on MSNBC. Here's what he said:

"The president opposed Proposition 8 at the time. He felt that it was divisive. He felt that it was mean-spirited, and he opposed it at the time. So we reiterated that position yesterday. The president does oppose same-sex marriage, but he supports equality for gay and lesbian couples, and benefits and other issues, and that has been effectuated in federal agencies under his control. He's supports civil unions, and that's been his position throughout. So nothing has changed."

But as John Aravosis says, everything has changed.

Here's another problem: In the interview with MSNBC this morning, Axelrod clarified that Obama believes that gay marriage is an issue for states to decide, and it's true that Obama opposes the Defense of Marriage Act, which codified a federal ban on gay marriage.

But as Michael Shear notes, his administration has yet to actively seek a repeal of DOMA, and is acquiescing to Congressional leaders who insist that the current political reality dictates that repeal is impossible. And his administration continues to defend DOMA in court against appeals.

Also: Obama has in the past claimed there's no inconsistency between opposing Prop 8 and opposing gay marriage by arguing he thinks gay marriage is wrong but we shouldn't be prohibiting it legally.
"When you're playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that that is not what America is about," he said in a 2008 MTV interview. "Usually constitutions expand liberties, they don't contract them."

But DOMA does just this, and while Obama opposes it, actively moving to repeal is what would turn this argument from mere eloquence to reality.

The problem for the White House is that the Prop 8 decision will force this issue onto full boil nationally, just as the Arizona law did with illegal immigration. And heading into his 2012 reelection campaign, the gay and lesbian community -- an important Dem constiuency -- will be demanding full support for gay marriage, and a repeal of DOMA.

They'll be demanding complete consistency, and won't want to be lectured about what is and isn't possible amid some arbitrarily defined "political reality."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/08/is_obamas_position_on_gay_marr.html

[Dos Equis]

In hindsight, his comments were disingenuous. 

Especially when you look at his actions:


For the Record, Obama Opposed Prop 8
November 8, 2008
By Chris Prevatt

I’ve been reading a lot of comments on this blog, and posts on others, that are critical of Senator Obama for not opposing Prop 8. For the record, those criticisms are baseless.

Barack Obama Opposed Proposition 8.

Earlier this year Barack Obama sent a letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club on the occasion of their Pride Breakfast. From his letter:

As the Democratic nominee for President, I am proud to join with and support the LGBT community in an effort to set our nation on a course that recognizes LGBT Americans with full equality under the law. That is why I support extending fully equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under both state and federal law. That is why I support repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, and the passage of laws to protect LGBT Americans from hate crimes and employment discrimination. And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states.

For too long. issues of LGBT rights have been exploited by those seeking to divide us. It’s time to move beyond polarization and live up to our founding promise of equality by treating all our citizens with dignity and respect. This is no less than a core issue about who we are as Democrats and as Americans.

I think this makes his position clear. The African-American community was mislead by the Yes on 8 liars. Their message, which included mailers quoting Senator Obama out of context as opposing same-gender marriage, was never countered by the No on 8 campaign. Simply put, the bone-heads running the No on 8 campaign assumed that they had democrats and specifically African-American voters in the bag. Any rational review of existing community profiles and voting trends would have told them that was not the case. They either never looked, or refused to see.

But the failure of the No on 8 campaign to succeed extended further in that they made no credible effort to turn out their identified voters to the polls. The percentage turnout in Alameda, and San Francisco demonstrate that failure all too clearly.

http://www.theliberaloc.com/2008/11/08/for-the-record-obama-opposed-prop-8/

This was after he said he had no problem with what California was doing.  I saw a clip on TV the other day, but can't find a link. 

[Soul Crusher]

Yet the twinks on this board like chad still cheer this liar on.