Never Thought I’d Say It…
By Mitch Berg
…but Obama got one right. He may not had intended to get it right – from the standpoint of a libertarian-conservative “tenther” – I’d rather doubt it, given his other behavior.
You could say he got it right for all the wrong reasons.
Stil, if even the loathsome Gawker gets it, then I think there’s some there, there.
Of course, the announcement itself infuriated the far left just as much as the far right:
He now believes that gay couples should be able to marry. He doesn’t believe they have a right to do so. This is like saying that black children and white children ought to attend the same schools, but if the people of Alabama reject that notion—what are you gonna do?
The key language in the ABC News write-up is this:
The president stressed that this is a personal position, and that he still supports the concept of states deciding the issue on their own.
On this afternoon’s special broadcast, Jake Tapper echoed that point: “The president said he thought this was a state-by-state issue.”
Whoah!
Now, this is not a profile in federalistic courage; it’s Obama hiding behind the Tenth Amendment to try to avoid infuriating blacks and gay-hating union members. Obama would use the Tenth Amendment as a placemat if he could get Obamacare, “tax the rich” and complete radical underhaul of the banking system jammed down.
The announcement, in other words, was an attempt to do the same basic thing he did with the Zimmerman/Martin flap: get his part of his base energized ( white liberals in this case) without losing the other half.
It may not be working yet.Well, before Roe v. Wade, abortion was a state-by-state issue, too. So was slavery.
We should never, as a nation, have embraced either.
At any rate – it may not be working.
May 10th, 2012 at 9:12 am
from a man who cannot speak extemporaneously on a subject without leaning heavily on personal pronouns, Mr. Obama’s statement yesterday (ABC interview) is a marvel:
“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
Our esteemed constitutional law “professor” seems unaware that the members of the armed services are NOT his subjects fighting on his behalf.
Its a shame our first black president couldn’t have been an educated man.
note 10 personal pronouns in 1 sentence.
May 10th, 2012 at 9:13 am
Obama’s assurances that he believes that this should be resolved on a State-by-State basis is belied by the fact that he ordered the Department of Justice to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act (which basically does this) from legal challenges in court.
So it’s a lie – just like “if you like your health plan you can keep it.”
May 10th, 2012 at 10:07 am
This is tremendous. Obama is turning the corner and embracing the concept of states’ rights! Wonderful.
Also, this is the biggest reason to have hope for November that I’ve felt in a long time. I think his public support for gay marriage is going to give him a lot of trouble in a lot of states – and among a lot of minority voters. I’m sure before he announced this that several focus groups were consulted and data analyzed, so his people must feel safe doing this. But I think this will prove to be a political mistake. Here’s hoping.
May 10th, 2012 at 10:57 am
Curious…will Obama reveal a Confederate battle flag tattoo on his ass?
Developing…..
May 10th, 2012 at 1:39 pm
PaulC, I think the way he said this was a politcally calculated statement, exactly meant to try and mollify the south: “I’m not only for gay rights, I’m also for state’s rights! You know, that whole 10th amendment thing you knuckle-draggers are trying to convince the rest of us enlightened folk, that it pertains to things OTHER than slavery?”
He’s trying to placate his base, and stem the bleeding of the south. That it came out the day after after NC voted 61/39 approving the gay marriage ban amendment, is 100% NOT a coincidence.
May 10th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Obama made his living, both as a lawyer and as a “law professor”, promoting the idea that the 14th amendment knows no limits of inclusion (other than caucasians) and no state borders.
May 10th, 2012 at 7:12 pm
“He now believes that gay couples should be able to marry.”
WTF?
Obama is for polygamous gay marriage? How many gay couples in each marriage? Two? Six?
May 11th, 2012 at 11:18 am
Mitch, you and your conservative ilk “have favored segregation, anti-miscegenation laws, Jim Crow laws, anti-evolution laws, comprehensive sexual education, revisionist history, bad science, bad economic policies, and bad social policies like removing minimum wage and child labor protection.” – – your best friend forever Dog Gone Crazy also says: “You have to love Jon Stewart, he fact checks, he thinks critically,…” and that Romney is “in this solely to rip off the 99% even more, for the benefit of his fellow 1%ers”…
Sorry mberg, Mitt “might persuade the gullible readers who ardently follow the Daily Mail, but not the rest of us”
Oh, my, she fisked the living shit out you again, mberg!!! Ouch, you’ve been had.
May 11th, 2012 at 2:49 pm
your best friend forever Dog Gone Crazy also says: “You have to love Jon Stewart, he fact checks, he thinks critically,…”
Wow, she assigns him more credibility than he assigns himself. When the first James O’Keefe – ACORN video surfaced, he did a bit about it, and I remember he quite plainly castigated the main stream media for missing/ignoring such a huge story when some comedian with an entertainment show didn’t.