After the Vice President (kinda) and several major administration officials (definitely) voiced their support for marriage equality in the past few days, Obama has been taking heat from the left for not directly voicing his support for marriage equality. Some large 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 record on gay rights generally, has paradoxically made it harder for Obama to continue holding out against gay marriage. His “evolving” position and overall record have left gay advocates fully persuaded that he does favor full equality for gay and lesbian Americans, increasing impatience for him to say so already, and making them all the more certain that his failure to do so is rooted in nothing but political calculation.
TPM has a timeline of events relative to the issue here.
It seems pretty obvious to me that the president is just playing politics here, but the politics of it baffle me. I really don’t think its the case that he will lose too many votes by supporting marriage equality. He never had those votes to begin with. And his record on gay rights is really very good, so folks looking to cast an anti-gay vote already have plenty of reasons to vote against the guy as it is.
On the flip side, however, supporting equality absolutely will win him votes, and could help mobilize and excite his base.
Supporting marriage equality is good policy, its good politics, and its actually the right thing to do. That combination is pretty rare in politics these days, so why not take advantage of it?
520 Chestnut 
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