The President has taken a bit of heat recently for announcing that he did “not yet” intend to sign an executive order banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by federal contractors. Good, he deserves it. I’d like to go ahead and pile on. The President’s defense here was that he prefers to accomplish this goal through legislation, rather than an EO, and I agree with that. But come on, everyone knows that legislation has no chance in this congress and even if it did, why couldn’t we put the EO in place until the legislation was signed?
This was nothing but a craven political calculation, and a dumb one. The people that would not vote for Obama because he signed this EO weren’t going to vote for him anyway.
Credit where it’s due, Obama actually has a good record on this (his “evolving” stance on marriage equality aside). He has put into place policies that ensure Executive Branch employees are not discriminated against, barred access to spousal benefits, etc. So why could he not continue to build upon that? This time, he absolutely made the wrong call, for both political and substantive reasons. I’ve been glad to see, in the wake of this decision, nearly universal condemnation on the left. He really does deserve the heat this time.
520 Chestnut 
[…] fundraisers are withholding their donations, and 72 congressmen have voiced their support of the executive order. Greg Sargent lays it out: Obama’s claim that he’s evolving on the issue, and his very good […]