The Phony Debate on Gay Marriage

So Barack Obama has come out in favor of gay marriage. Quelle Surprise!!! Everyone knew it. He just lied about it for several years. The only one in the closet was Barack!!!!

Let’s get to the nitty gritty. Positions on gay marriage are all over the place. My personal view matched Barack’s view up until last week. I am strong supporter of civil unions. “Marriage” as understood by our society has too many religious overtones and ought to be left alone out of respect for those with more traditional view of things as well as maintaining its importance in our societal foundation. Of course, I am an Episcopalian, and our Presiding Bishop is an advocate of blessing same sex unions. So much for the traditional view things!! But my old Barack politically correct stance now brands me a homophobe. What a difference a day makes.

Given that he lied about his position for three years, I’m not sure what he has gained by his “evolving” view. Any astute politician knows that from Biden’s so called gaffe on the Sunday show to Obama’s

“grant” of an interview to ABC News, to the hit piece against Romney in the Washington Post and the gimme cash fund raiser with the Hollywood 1% was absolutely planned. Community organizers know how to do these things unlike the rest of us, and make it look one way when it is totally another. The whole thing is a ginned up phony debate.

That being said, he certainly will bolster his support within the gay community who may now actually decide to show up to vote for him. He has re-established his left wing bona fides. The problem is that he probably actually hurt his chances for re-election. These voters…the ones to whom his actions appeal…mostly live in states he would win anyway. California and New York and Massachusetts will go to Obama notwithstanding any increase in his support within the confines of those states.  Once again this raises the specter of Obama winning the popular vote and losing the election in the electoral college.

On the other hand, he probably mobilized evangelicals, conservative blacks, and conservative Hispanics in toss up states such as Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. North Carolina, Obama’s southern prize four years ago, is now kaput. The Democratic Convention is to be held in Charlotte, but serious consideration is now being given to moving the convention to another state. Why waste the press and the money?

Obama has not stopped campaigning from day one of his presidency. People lauded him for being such an astute politician. Gay marriage is certainly a serious issue that appeals to some people. On the other hand, it only points out his lack of attention to jobs during his presidency by focusing on his progressive social policy like health care, global warming and gay rights rather than what means most to Americans: jobs, a growing economy, and reestablishing our rightful place on the world stage.

He can only deflect for so long. Sooner or later he is going to have to put the war on gays, the war on women, the war on blacks, the war on Latinos, the war on immigrants and the war on energy on the back burner and face his own war on American prosperity and energy independence. Those things affect all Americans equally.