I love how the media portray President Obama and handle him with kid gloves. This was especially obvious this week after Vice President Biden shot off his mouth about gay marriage and forced the president to state his views on the subject. It was awesome to watch the words the media used to describe the president’s position. It was “evolving.” It was “thoughtful.” It was “informed.” It was “compassionate.” It was “humane.” It was “charitable.” It was “reflective.” It was “responsive.” Really? Trust me. It was none of that. It was a flip-flop. Did any news outlet anywhere call Mitt Romney’s decision to embrace a “pro-life” position and abandon a “woman’s right to choose” an evolution? No. Of course not. And there is a simple reason why – because it was a flip-flop. In fact, Obama’s “change of heart” on gay marriage ranks right up there in the range of mother of all flip-flops. But no, it was just a “thoughtful evolution.” And while gay Americans are celebrating this, and heaping effusive praise on their compassionate, caring president, perhaps they should consider this. Obama says gay marriage is a state issue. Didn’t they say that about slavery? So Obama believes gay people should be able to marry, but not that they have the right to marry. That’s up to each individual state, which, essentially, puts the gay marriage issue right where it was the day before his “charitable reflexion.” Now, if Obama would have said he believes gay marriage is a right under the U.S. Constitution, he would have been saying something. Then states couldn’t stand in the way of gay marriage. That would have been courageous. That would have been ground breaking. Instead, he’s saying, well, virtually nothing. If he applied his logic to abortion he would be saying, “I believe women should have the right to choose, but it’s best left up to the states.” Or apply it to women’s suffrage: “I think women should be allowed to vote but we should let states decide.” So to me, it’s a stretch to say that Obama’s some big gay-marriage proponent. He’s just playing politics. He and his advisers know that blacks are overwhelmingly against gay marriage. He knows that if he loses too many black votes it puts a lot of currently safe states in play for Mitt Romney. Can’t do that. Can’t come out for gay marriage as a right. But he can, as a sop to his liberal base and gay rights groups, come out in support of gay marriage as a concept. And if he felt that strongly about it, wouldn’t it be a plank in the his party’s platform? It’s not. And it won’t be. Trust me. A day after President Obama declared his support for gay marriage, the White House chose not to push for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA bars gay men and women from receiving federal marriage benefits. And it lets states refuse to recognize gay marriages performed in other states. A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney straight up if Obama would call for repeal of DOMA and endorse pro-gay marriage language in the party platform. He said: “Well, party platform issues are for the party to decide.” And, “That process is underway, and I refer you to the DNC on the question about the platform.” Nice dodge. Frankly, lots of legal types believe the DOMA challenge is pretty close to settled law because federal courts have upheld interracial marriage even though some states wanted to ban them. Obama’s position on gay marriage goes against that legal standing. Far from being a champion of gay marriage, seems to me President Obama is just playing a cruel joke on gay people who believe they should have the right to marry each other.
