Barack Obamas announcement today that he supports gay marriage was not an epiphany achieved after an extended period of agonizing consideration. There was no “evolving” in this thinking. There was no thinking in this thinking.
This was a carefully calculated political move based upon which stance would hurt him the least, and as such, it was a no brainer.
The vast majority of people that wanted Obama to side against gay marriage were never, in a million years, going to vote for him anyway. Not all…..but WAY most.
The vast majority of people that wanted him to come out (heh…) in support of gay marriage would have voted for him. He already had their votes, so he very clearly risked greater losses going against those folks wishes.
Will he lose some moderate and undecided votes because of this announcement? I’d say that’s a fair certainty. But to go the opposite way would cut into his existing support base, which is already taking some pretty good shots early in this race, and that just wouldn’t do.
This was not about integrity or moral character or evolution….or even giving the true issue a moments thought.
If it was about any of those things, he’d have come to todays conclusion long before today and been forthright about it from the start. This isn’t a new issue. This has been in the forefront since before he was president, and if his opinion was genuine he’d have gotten to it a long time ago. A leader leads.
This was cold, calculated politics.
This was pure campaign strategy.
Those that sought his blessing…..don’t get all warm and fuzzy over it. You’re not gay or straight or sideways to this man. You’re not even people.
You are votes.
