Gawker calls BS on Obama's gay marriage evolution...

So to get this straight, Barack Obama was for gay marriage, before he was against gay marriage, but now he is for gay marriage again, because his family and friends encouraged him to come out of the closet and adopt a position the same as Dick Cheney's?


A profile in courage this is not.  Update:  The Agitator agrees with me on this.   So does Roger Stone.  


“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian — for me — for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”  Barack Obama

Gawker criticizes Barack Obama's flip flopping evolution on same sex marriage.  

Barack Obama’s Bullshit Gay Marriage Announcement... That is a half-assed, cowardly cop-out...Is it a politically wise dodge? Maybe. This was obviously a hastily arranged interview—we're told that ABC News' Robin Roberts, who is close to Michelle Obama, was only tapped in the last 48 hours by the White House to come down—designed to clean up the mess left by Biden's pro-gay marriage comments in as advantageous way as possible. And for Obama to declare that he considers North Carolina and other states' bans on gay marriage to be unconstitutional would probably energize the GOP base. But those bans are unconstitutional. And anyone who supports their legitimacy—as Obama just did, in no uncertain terms—even if they oppose the policy, is adopting the retrograde position in the contemporary gay marriage debate. Obama is moving backward, not forward.

Gawker is right on the cop out part and probably right this was a panic decision in response to Joe Biden having a senior moment.  Now I completely disagree that the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or similar equal protection clauses in state constitutions from the 19th century were intended to give same sex couples the right to marry.  So Gawker is flat out wrong on that issue.  Whether you think gay marriage is better than free ice cream and whiskey, making up constitutional rights as you go alone as a short cut for the hard work of passing laws in a republic is a bad idea.  Gay marriage is something new.  You want to make it law, go pass a law.  Or get voters to support a referendum (if your state allows it).  Or if you want to create a constitutional right, pass an amendment.  That is how it is supposed to work under our system of government.  And no, same sex marriage bans are not the same as slavery.  Eventually I predict same sex marriage will be recognized in most states (I would vote for it), but let's not pretend it is some right that just showed up like some mushrooms on the lawn.  


But Gawker is right on pointing out the hypocrisy of Barack Obama on this issue.  


Because Obama was for gay marriage before he ran for President, then during the 2008 campaign Barack Obama was against gay marriage, but now (in response to big money gay donors saying they were turning off the fund raising spigot) suddenly evolved into a states rights guy over gay marriage.  Of course, to be consistent Barack Obama would have to have the same federalist position on abortion...

Update:
Barack Obama's Pauline Kael moment...

Update:  The Other McCain does an excellent job of deciphering Obama's email

It is always about Obama...

Update:
More from Mediate...

“What I’m saying is that different states are coming to different conclusions,” Obama replied. “I think it’s important to recognize that folks who feel very strongly that marriage should be defined narrowly as between a man and a woman, many are them are not coming at it from a mean-spirited perspective. A bunch of them are friends of mine. Pastors and people who I deeply respect.”

“Especially in the black community,” added Roberts.

“Right,” the President agreed. “Absolutely. But I think it’s important for me to say to them, that as much as I respect them, as much as I understand where they’re coming from, when I meet gay and lesbian couples, for me, I think it just has tipped the scales in that direction.”

More from Pajama Media:

GAY MARRIAGE AS A DISTRACTION: Roger L. Simon writes, “Unlike Barack Obama, I have been an unwavering public supporter of gay marriage since first writing on the subject on my blog almost ten years ago. I remain so today. It is a clear human rights issue to me:”

But there’s one more thing, as Steve Jobs would say, that just might console our gay friends and their allies and help them keep their eyes on the economic ball this election. At least it should: Gay marriage is already virtually a fait accompli.

Those of us who live in urban America see it all around us — tons of gay couples, sometimes in large communities, living together, working, having kids (adopted or in vitro or sometimes from broken heterosexual marriages), and doing almost everything straight couples do. And nobody seems to care. Almost nobody, anyway.

Yes, there are still some legalities that need to be adjusted, but that will come, especially since the polls show the younger generation overwhelmingly in favor of same-sex marriage. It is only we geezers who object. (Okay, I don’t.) And, as we know, the minorities. As of now, same-sex marriage is a white man’s game (Obama excepted, of course).

Nevertheless, whatever your opinion of gay marriage, I am writing this article to urge you not to engage. The issue is a sideshow intended to distract. If our country goes the way of Greece – and writing this from the City of Los Angeles, it’s not so hard to imagine – you can forget any issue, whatever your favorite one is.  You won’t be living in America anymore.

Still though, as Gay Patriot quips, paraphrasing Sally Field, “It doesn’t matter what [Obama] does or hasn’t done; it does matter that he likes us.” And so does Barney Frank, perhaps eager to avoid the Kinsleyesque gaffe that Michelle Obama made in 2008, who says he feels “even better about my country” today.