Comments

1
Very well said. Though there is something poignant about someone, even you, addressing the president via Slog.
2
I've never believed a word the guy has said; he's a politician, after all. But I do believe it's fair to judge him by his actions. So far, in the words of the Mighty Ching, no praise, no blame.
3
"Secondly, you are supporting the efforts of states such as New York in passing equal marriage laws."

What? When? How? Did I miss something? Or are we counting feckless uninvolvement as support?
4
There are different types of hypocrisy. One sort, which I detest, is the one by which a person enforces rules against others that they nominally claim apply to them as well, but do not. This is hypocrisy in the service of power, and is particularly dangerous because it allows for a system which can be defended as "fair" even though it does not act fairly.

It is a strategic sort of hypocrisy: the hypocritical action is the goal of the manoeuvre.

The other is when someone claims to believe differently than she does due to fear of the consequences. This is not good---life is dangerous when we are not brave---but is I think understandable, and might be considered as tactically necessary.
5
I approve of this post.
6
I've been considering the movements that have been made in this direction by the President, and I'm starting to think, like Jon Stewart, that Obama and his crew are really Jedi masters playing three-dimensional chess and are seven steps ahead of the rest of us. By saying one thing and doing another, he avoids the headline-grabbing sound-bite-laden media culture, and instead, gets things done. Intriguing.

http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/
7
This is convincing an argument as I've seen yet on the subject. It still Makes. Me. Crazy. to see him using such Orwellian dodges when it comes to expressing his support for full equality. It's so painfully obvious that his personal opinion does not coincide with his political strategy that you want to scream "Just stop! You are fooling no one! You are on the right side of history, just say it out loud!". Then again it wouldn't be the first time that the guy drove us out of our fucking minds with apparent timidity and eventually delivered the goods. IF he manages by the end of his second term to get rid of DOMA, he'll likely go down in history as the president that did the most to advance GLBT rights.
8
It's about fucking time that people get this. There are a shit ton of things for which we need this man in office (have you paid any attention to the evisceration of individual rights that the Roberts Court has undertaken? Can you even imagine giving appointment power to the next Republican candidate, whoever the fuck it is?). If he had come out loud and proud for marriage equality, while the "right" thing to do, it would have guaranteed that he was a one-term president. This has ALWAYS been a second term issue for him to tackle.
9
So the defence for Obama, the great liberal hope, is "he says he's a bigot, but he's actually just a liar"? Dick Cheney's publicly express opinions (believes in gay marriage personally, but believes it should be a states issue) are more LGBT friendly then Obama's. The fact that Obama's supporters let him get away that sickens me.
10
@9 - there is no consequence to Dick Cheney's opinion. He can also declare his support for kittens, puppies, and grandma - but who the hell cares?

Throughout his term, the President has been signaling to us "hang in there, there's some other stuff that we have to take care of first like a completely screwed up economy, health care (and by the way, the number of people that are impacted by a lack of healthcare is FAR FAR greater than the number of people impacted by marriage inequality), an auto industry that is about to completely collapse and with it about 5 million jobs, two wars that I didn't want but now I have to figure out how to clean up, and a few other random things so I can't come out full force because that'll just give folks something to really distract our attention and nothing will get accomplished anyway - but if you stay with me, your time will come."

But instead we have some folks who want to scream and pout and hold their breath because haven't gotten WHAT THEY WANT RIGHT NOW.
11
AMEN! I don't care what he SAYS, only what he's done and will do. RESULTS are all any of us should care about, given the state of our christianist country. We've had some of the 'sayers' over the years, but never any do'ers. I will support him because of what he's done, and for that, he absolutely must be a two-term president.
12
PS: if we hadn't been screwed by everyone until Obama with promises and no action, would we really be having this conversation? He's asked us to give him the benefit of the doubt, and I'm starting to believe him and his ultimate sincerity to assist in our civil rights. What could it hurt?
The alternative to trusting someone who's delivered, is to put a Rethug in the Whitehouse who will actively work against us, ie: Bush appointing the Roberts Court and a million other travesties.
13
@10 Ya those selfish pricks holding their breath so they can have the same rights under the law as anyone else. It's like having a civil rights movement in the middle of the Vietnam war.

Cheney's opinion matters as he is still a powerful force in the Republican party. One day libertarian leaning Republicans are going to wake up to the fact that less government includes not allowing the government to define marriage. On that day Democrats will have nothing to hide their own bigotry behind.

Obama has been an absolute failure of a president and is basically a more incompetent, less courageous version of George Bush.
14
Hey Cerne, thanks for visiting SLOG! Now go back to working on Santorum's presidential bid! Don't be a stranger, mmkay?

And to the real sloggers, just wait until his second term. Bet he evolves, already. It sucks that our political structure is the way it is, but we all know there is quite a lot of bullshit that a president needs to go through in order to pass real, positive change for the USA.
15
So he supported gay marriage when it was in his interest to support it (running for Illinois senate), shifted to oppose it when it was convenient to oppose it (running for President), and currently has taken a stance of officially-opposes-but-tacitly-supports, because he's calculated that:

1. explicit support would hurt his re-election chances, but
2. if he dog-whistles and stays out of the way of history, he can hold on to enough LGBT donors for said re-election, all while
3. allowing civil rights to progress at their "normal" rate without having to take any actual political risks himself

...and for that he gets patted on the back for "delivering"? He's not delivering, he's not "fiercely advocating", and he's definitely not leading, he's doing exactly what he's been doing from the very beginning, cynically holding a wet finger to the wind and making sure he's balanced exactly on the line.

If that's all it takes to earn the gratitude the LGBT community, then you guys really are donor-sluts. Let's not get carried away, he's only giving you the crumbs he's giving you because he can see the long term trend is in your favor and because he wants your money. If it was more politically expedient, he'd throw you under the bus without batting an eye.
16
I realize Goldman Sachs Presents Barack Obama has done a lot for LGBT rights and will likely do more, and that as the lesser of the only two evil options you’ve all convinced yourselves you have, it makes sense supporting him and giving him the benefit of the doubt… if you’re a single issue voter that only cares about LGBT rights.

I want marriage equality too. I also want accountability for torture. I can’t stand this pathetic politician setting the crystal clear precedent that American presidents are above the law, even when there’s overwhelming evidence they repeatedly authorized war crimes. I want GITMO closed. I want permanent detention without trial, something Obama instead of excising, has institutionalized, gone from our justice system. I want to see the voracious grab for power by the executive branch, which now includes the current president believing he has the authority to murder any US citizen anywhere in the world with no accountability from any of the other branches of government, STOP. I want to see the resurrected failed economic policies of Hoover, namely austerity in a time of great economic hardship, STOP.

Obama is a monster. He’s decent on LGBT issues, but he’s a fucking monster. He’s a shitpile of a human being. He asked for, and received the most responsibility of any person living today, and he’s using it to continue the destruction of this country.

Indeed, I’ll keep being impatient as well, Dan.
17
Repeating what I said earlier at #15, now that I'm back on my own computer:

So he supported gay marriage when it was in his interest to support it (running for Illinois senate), shifted to oppose it when it was convenient to oppose it (running for President), and currently has taken a stance of officially-opposes-but-tacitly-supports, because he's calculated that:

1. explicit support would hurt his re-election chances, but
2. if he dog-whistles and stays out of the way of history, he can hold on to enough LGBT donors for said re-election, all while
3. allowing civil rights to progress at their "normal" rate without having to take any actual political risks himself

...and for that he gets patted on the back for "delivering"? He's not delivering, he's not "fiercely advocating", and he's definitely not leading, he's doing exactly what he's been doing from the very beginning, cynically holding a wet finger to the wind and making sure he's balanced exactly on the line.

If that's all it takes to earn the gratitude the LGBT community, then you guys really are donor-sluts. Let's not get carried away, he's only giving you the crumbs he's giving you because he can see the long term trend is in your favor and because he wants your money. If it was more politically expedient, he'd throw you under the bus without batting an eye.

IOW, I agree with OuterCow.

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