Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/09/politi...html?hpt=hp_c1
Quote:
President Barack Obama said Wednesday he supports same-sex marriage, raising the political stakes on an issue in which Americans are evenly split.
The announcement, long sought by supporters of same-sex marriage, puts Obama squarely at odds with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
"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," Obama said in an interview with ABC News.
Follow link for the rest.
Out of all the responses ( http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...-announcement/ ) I think the log cabin republicans actually summed it up best;
Quote:
"What the president has chosen today, when LGBT Americans are mourning the passage of Amendment One, to finally speak up for marriage equality is offensive and callous. Log Cabin Republicans appreciate that President Obama has finally come in line with leaders like Vice President plantain Cheney on this issue, but LGBT Americans are right to be angry that this calculated announcement comes too late to be of any use to the people of North Carolina, or any of the other states that have addressed this issue on his watch. This administration has manipulated LGBT families for political gain as much as anybody, and after his campaign's ridiculous contortions to deny support for marriage equality this week he does not deserve praise for an announcement that comes a day late and a dollar short."
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
Eh, not matter what he does he gets criticized.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Corn
Eh, not matter what he does he gets criticized.
it's his job. not everyone will agree with him.
lol'd at "plantain cheney"
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ShinkuDragon
it's his job. not everyone will agree with him.
lol'd at "plantain cheney"
To add on that, you only hear the loud ones in a multitude.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
Remember that he "personally" is affirming something that he has flip-flopped on. This doesn't really change anything.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
It's about dam time imo. Idk if it was wise to take a stand on this controversial issue so close to the next election, but bravo Mr. President.
http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/ima...tizen_cane.gif
Now if only we could get the Republicans to stfu.... :monocle:
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
I honestly thought it was pretty obvious.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
That he would say it now means one of two things:
A) His handlers told him that he'll win the election anyway, so it doesn't matter that he'll piss off swing state voters by endorsing gay marriage.
B) His handlers told him he'll lose the election anyway, so he may as well be honest instead of worrying about polling/lying in a vain attempt to get reelected. It may help in later elections to take the hit now.
I'm leaning more towards B. This does not poll well in Ohio or Florida. Or North Carolina or Virginia. Or anywhere except the Northeast and West Coast, which he absolutely wasn't going to lose anyway.
It could be an attempt to get Romney to say something he'll regret but... that seems like a poor tactic to use against someone widely believed to be the most slippery man alive.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
@Exidous If it's closer to your option B I don't think it's as drastically clear cut as that. Take a look at the current Electoral Map predictions to see why. Obama has to win a third as many of the leaning/tossup states, electorally speaking, as Romney, and the leaning are already "in his favor."
Also, I think the Log Cabin Republican statement is a load of bullpomegranate. You're going to criticize him for not "coming out" with his personal opinions sooner? First off, if they paid attention to anything said by his administration immediately following the broadcast, they'd know he planned on announcing this at the Democratic National Convention later this year, but moved it up because of VP Biden's like comments this past Sunday. And bear in mind, this is not exactly something Obama should've just tweeted out following Biden's comments, in order to get some "time" in before the NC vote (which, by the way, was honestly inevitable if you look at that margin; the state is already a tossup, so it's not like Obama's statement coming sooner would've changed anything but a few % points at best), because Obama is the first sitting President in U.S. history to vocally support same-sex marriage. They keep clamoring about plantain Cheney's recent support, but where was his criticism for not saying anything when he was the SITTING VICE PRESIDENT FOR 8 YEARS?! Sit down, shut up, and recognize what he's done for LGBT Americans in just one term, because it's more than any other President before.
Hypocritical bullpomegranate.
P.S. Eos you should really change the thread title - Obama's announcement today was in support of same-sex marriage, not gay rights. He still won't issue an Executive Order to prevent sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in the workplace, for example, and while it's because he wants to see ENDA passed (and thus could be argued, to some degree, to "support gay rights"), his administration today clearly stated this announcement doesn't change his stance on said EO.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
Huffington Post is dreaming, man.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrozNlite
They keep clamoring about plantain Cheney's recent support, but where was his criticism for not saying anything when he was the SITTING VICE PRESIDENT FOR 8 YEARS?! Sit down, shut up, and recognize what he's done for LGBT Americans in just one term, because it's more than any other President before.
Hypocritical bullpomegranate.
Because The most important issue to anyone who is gay is whether or not the government recognizes, subsidizes, and genuflects before gay marriage? Their statement sounds like they're pissed about the way he's doing it, which is pretty legitimate criticism. Honestly I don't understand how anyone didn't view the "evolving" nonsense as transparent to begin with. What was he going to do, announce his opposition to gay marriage and that he was not "evolving" anymore? The framing of the statement made it obvious that he's always been pro gay marriage, he just didn't think it was politically acceptable to say so. That's not leadership, that's pathetic pandering.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrozNlite
P.S. Eos you should really change the thread title - Obama's announcement today was in support of same-sex marriage, not gay rights. He still won't issue an Executive Order to prevent sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in the workplace, for example, and while it's because he wants to see ENDA passed (and thus could be argued, to some degree, to "support gay rights"), his administration today clearly stated this announcement doesn't change his stance on said EO.
Probably because that would be hideously unconstitutional. And for an administration that blithely asserted Obamacare was unassailably constitutional, that's saying something.
But you do bring up a good point. Obama is musing that it "should" be legal. He's not describing the legal avenue by which he hopes to achieve that. Perhaps he means everyone should "evolve" with him, a gentle reminder that everyone should think as he does. Or maybe he means march on Kansas and force them to recognize gay marriage at gunpoint. We wont really know, because I doubt he'll go into further detail.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
It's about god damn time.
Obama finally admits to supporting gay rights marriage.
Pretty tacky to wait till election year to say anything about supporting gay rights.
Personally I don't respect him for being in office for this long and just now having said it.
If he truly supported gays and lesbians he would have had no qualms saying so right from the beginning.
Re: Obama finally admits to supporting gay <strike>rights</strike> marriage.
What I like about this public statement is that it means Obama's handlers believe American voters will approve of support for gay marriage, or at least not disapprove too much.
As an indicator of public opinion, this is encouraging.
Re: Obama finally admits to supporting gay <strike>rights</strike> marriage.
He has not always supported same-sex marriage, and you guys have absolutely no concept of public relations. His announcement yesterday was planned and executed, yes, but that's what you need to do as President, and Obama did a very good job with this statement.
Re: Obama finally admits to supporting gay <strike>rights</strike> marriage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Zelkova
Some of us live there.
Still haven't seen someone who supports Amendment 1 here, I guess living in the Triangle does that.
Re: Obama finally admits to supporting gay <strike>rights</strike> marriage.
Only talked to a few people about it here but those few voted against it, didn't think it'd be that one sided though.
Re: Obama finally admits to supporting gay <strike>rights</strike> marriage.
It's an issue that breaks along demographic and geographic lines a lot more cleanly than most. There has basically been a cultural tipping point in urban liberal areas that essentially have it that you aren't allowed to be against gay marriage, thinking on the issue that differs from the norm is socially unacceptable. So "support" is disproportionately pronounced. This effect concentrates support in certain areas, and leaves a solid majority of states with majority opposition to gay marriage.
States elect presidents.