President Obama endorses marriage equality

[CarsonPalmer]

The same thing could have been said about every other rights movement- the point is that this is a position that allows Obama to gain credit with dissatisfied liberals without committing himself to any action on his part with the whole "state-by-state" thing. So don't start celebrating yet- there's not really any signs here that the President is actually going to pull a Lincoln, and a number against. For one thing, he went from being pro-marriage equality in his activist years to being anti-equality for the 2008 election, and suddenly became pro-equality again, whereas Lincoln was consistently anti-slavery before the war and shifted to believe in social equality for blacks in the course of the war.

That being said, SCOTUS is not especially favorable now, but Obama made this bed anyways by nominating centrists for the court instead of liberals.

Well, he's definitely not going to pull a Lincoln because he has no authority to sign a gay marriage proclamation.

The Lincoln analogy doesn't quite work, either, because the first battles with slavery were over the expansion of an evil, not an introduction of a good. If we have to try to reach for a historical analogy, Truman and Civil Rights in '48 is probably the closest, although the struggle for gay rights is much further along today than civil rights was then, and Dewey's GOP was not anti-black in at all the way that the GOP today is anti-gay.

[Lord Zentei]

So now Biden has apologized for having a big fucking mouth, and thus forcing Obama into a tough spot so that he basically felt that he had to endorse gay marriage:

Washington (CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden has apologized to President Barack Obama for putting him in a tough position that led to Obama's announcement that he now supports same-sex marriage, senior administration officials said Thursday.

Obama said in an interview that aired Thursday on ABC that he made his decision public earlier than he had planned after Biden's weekend remark that he was "absolutely comfortable" with letting gays and lesbians marry.

Two senior administration officials said Biden and Obama met Wednesday morning, and Biden apologized for putting Obama in a tough spot. Obama responded by saying that he knew Biden was speaking from the heart, said the officials, who didn't want to be named discussing private conversations between the president and vice president.

Biden's remarks on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday launched a controversy that led to Obama announcing that his position on same-sex marriage, which he had previously called "evolving," had shifted to support. When Obama's full interview aired Thursday, he said his disclosure came sooner than planned as a result of Biden's comments.

"I had already made a decision that we were going to probably take this position before the election and before the convention," Obama said on ABC's "Good Morning America." Biden "probably got out a little bit over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit," he said.

He added that he would have "preferred to have done this in my own way, on my own terms," but "all's well that ends well."

Separately, Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said Obama "has been the leader on this issue from day one, and the vice president never intended to distract from that."

Once Biden's comments drew attention to the issue, Obama made plans to announce his support next week on a previously scheduled appearance on the ABC talk show "The View," a senior administration official said Thursday. The president and his advisers knew Obama would be asked about the issue in the wake of Biden's NBC interview, said the official, who didn't want to speak publicly about internal administration discussions.

Ultimately, they decided to move up the timeline and have him announce his support during the ABC interview at the White House, the official said. And a top Democrat told CNN that Obama knew the issue would come up at the convention, partly because of a push for support for same-sex marriage to be included in the Democratic Party platform, and in debates.

Multiple top Democrats told CNN the president's senior aides are annoyed with Biden for forcing the conversation on same-sex marriage now. One source said Biden has, in the past, counseled the president against coming out for same-sex marriage, making this move that much more frustrating.

But the sources said they don't believe it will create a lasting rift between the two leaders. Biden is known to go off-script, something Obama knew when he selected his vice president.

In explaining to ABC how his position has evolved, Obama noted that his daughters Malia and Sasha have "friends whose parents are same-sex couples. It wouldn't dawn on them that somehow their friends' parents would be treated differently. And frankly that's the kind of thing that prompts a change of perspective, not wanting to somehow explain to your child why somebody should be treated differently when it comes to the eyes of the law."

Asked about whether his new position is a calculated move in an election year, Obama said it would "be hard to argue that somehow this is something that I'd be doing for political advantage. Because frankly, you know, the politics -- it's not clear how they cut."

The interview aired the same day Obama attended a fundraiser in Los Angeles, where support for same-sex marriage is strong. Movie star George Clooney hosted the event, which is raking in $15 million, according to a top Democratic source. And on Monday, openly gay singer Ricky Martin is hosting a fundraising event for Obama in New York.

But some in the African-American community have expressed strong disapproval of Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage. A Democratic official said the White House has been actively reaching out to African-American community leaders and pastors and will continue to do so in the wake of the president's decision, but the official noted that even the president's base won't always agree with him on everything. "There are going to be issues you don't agree on," the official said.

And Obama told ABC he won't spend much time talking about the issue, because he's focused on the economy. The announcement puts Obama squarely at odds with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has since reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage.
"And I do not favor civil unions if they are identical to marriage other than by name," Romney said during a Wednesday visit to Fort Lupton, Colorado. "My view is the domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights and the like are appropriate, but that the others are not."

The issue is a divisive one in American politics, but it's uncertain how the development might play out at the voting booth.

A Gallup Poll released Tuesday indicated 50% of Americans believe same-sex marriages should be recognized by law as valid, with 48% saying such marriages should not be legal -- a dramatic shift from a few years ago. A Gallup poll in 2009 found 40% supported same-sex marriage and 57% were opposed.

But a CNN/ORC International poll, taken in late March, indicated policies toward gays and lesbians were tied for last in people's opinions of the most-important issues facing the country.

Obama said he supports states deciding the issue on their own, but added that he was "disappointed" by Tuesday's vote on the issue in North Carolina, where a ban on same-sex marriage was added to the constitution. Obama called the amendment discriminatory against gays and lesbians, a spokesman said earlier Wednesday.

Six states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York -- and the District of Columbia issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, while 31 states have voted in favor of constitutional amendments that seek to defend traditional definitions of marriage as a heterosexual union.

In February, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire signed a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage beginning in June, but opponents there have pledged to block the bill and called for voters to decide the issue. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley signed into law a bill that permits the state's same-sex couples to wed as of January 1, and state residents may vote to affirm such a law.

Minnesota will vote on a state constitutional amendment similar to the one in North Carolina, while Maine will have a referendum on allowing same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, two cases seeking to overturn laws forbidding the practice, one from California and another from Massachusetts, could be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court in coming months.

So much for this having been due to high-minded ideals and cunning strategy.

Oh well, whatever. I'll take it.

EDIT: the above quips were for Obama's benefit, not Biden's. While he's a bit of a tool, and acts like the Washington DC version of everyone's embarrassing uncle, I can't help but like him better than Obama for some reason.

[Dalton]

Like I've said before, Biden may be our Prince Philip, but he's a very experienced elder statesman with loads of foreign relations experience in the Senate. He complements Obama quite nicely.

[UnderAGreySky]

I think comparing Biden to Phil the Greek is a massive insult to Biden. Biden is tactless but rarely racist and insulting, with a super sense of humour (his acceptance of the photoshop of him washing a car shirtless on the WH gate was gold).

[Dalton]

I think comparing Biden to Phil the Greek is a massive insult to Biden. Biden is tactless but rarely racist and insulting, with a super sense of humour (his acceptance of the photoshop of him washing a car shirtless on the WH gate was gold).

I was talking more in terms of Gaffe Machine. I realize the comparison isn't equal, but it is comparable.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Here are some initial Gallup polling results on the impact of Obama's announcement.

Six in 10 Say Obama Same-Sex Marriage View Won't Sway Vote
More say it makes them less likely rather than more likely to vote for Obama

PRINCETON, NJ -- A majority of Americans, 60%, say President Barack Obama's newly announced support for same-sex marriage will make no difference to their vote. Twice as many say it will make them less likely to vote for Obama as say more likely, though roughly half of the "less likely" group are Republicans who probably would not support Obama anyway.

The results are based on a May 10 USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in response to Obama's May 9 announcement that he supports legalizing gay marriage. Obama is the first president to publicly support gay marriage while in office. The poll finds 51% of Americans approving of his position, essentially matching the 50% of Americans who support gay marriage in general, and similar to his 49% overall job approval rating.

The six in 10 Americans who say Obama's position on same-sex marriage will not affect their vote could be an underestimate because Republicans disproportionately make up the group who say they are less likely to vote for Obama, and Democrats disproportionately make up the group who say they are more likely to vote for him. It is probably safe to assume, given the strong relationship between party identification and vote choice, that most of those voters would have voted for or against Obama regardless of his view on gay marriage.

Partisans' responses to the question may therefore indicate more of a change in the intensity of their vote choice as opposed to an actual change in the candidate they support.

Thus, a key to assessing how the change in Obama's view of same-sex marriage will affect his vote share this fall would be to look at its effect on independents, and on Democrats and Republicans whose views are different from the majority of their party.

Specifically, 23% of independents and 10% of Democrats say it makes them less likely to vote for Obama, while a smaller 11% of independents and 2% of Republicans say it makes them more likely to vote for Obama. Those figures suggest Obama's gay marriage position is likely to cost him more independent and Democratic votes than he would gain in independent and Republican votes, clearly indicating that his new position is more of a net minus than a net plus for him. However, those figures also underscore that it is a relatively limited group of voters -- about one in three independents and fewer than one in 10 Republicans or Democrats -- whose votes may change as a result of Obama's new stance on gay marriage.

It is important to note that the poll's results give a sense of Americans' immediate reactions to Obama's position. It is possible that the impact of Obama's same-sex marriage position will ultimately be greater or lesser, depending on the attention paid to the same-sex marriage issue during the duration of the presidential campaign.

[Dr Roberts]

Personally I like the way Chris Rock summed it up "it shows what our culture is like when someone says people shouldn't be discriminated against is controversial" paraphrased of course.

[Lord Zentei]

Here are some initial Gallup polling results on the impact of Obama's announcement.

However, it probably gives him quite a lot of campaign cash: Linka

[amigocabal]

The hate-obama portion of the left will come up with some excuse why this doesn't count within the end of the day. Mark my words.

Our boy has disappointed me deeply in some ways (amnesty for wiretappers and war criminals, hyperactive DEA and Justice Dept. assaulting innocent, law-abiding dispensaries), but one only has to imagine what Bush and Cheney would be doing in an imaginary 3rd and 4th term to accept that there is simply no plausible alternative.

Since you mentioned Cheney, he was the first Vice President to endorse marriage equality. "Freedom means freedom for everyone".

Was that the "Nixon goes to China" moment for marriage equality?

[UnderAGreySky]

I don't think he was a sitting vice president when he did, the quote you mentioned was spoken in 2009 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31066626/ns ... ate-issue/). Creditable, yes, but nowhere near as much as doing it when you're running for office.