Did Obama Push Romney to the Right?

[alp227]

Ed Brayton ("Dispatches from the Culture Wars&quot comments about Obama's same-sex marriage endorsement:

Another interesting side effect of President Obama’s tepid support for marriage equality is that it may force Mitt Romney to move further to the right than he would like to on such issues. The outrage from the theo-con base is so off the charts that it could prevent Romney from moving toward the more moderate position that he is much more comfortable with taking. That’s why he had to run from his original statement in response to Obama, which included this: "...if two people of the same gender want to live together, want to have a loving relationship, or even to adopt a child — in my state individuals of the same sex were able to adopt children. In my view, that’s something that people have a right to do. But to call that marriage is something that in my view is a departure from the real meaning of that word."

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. I was initially concerned about this issue firing up the right-wing

and how that might affect turnout. However, if it serves to pin Romney (and Republicans) to the right even harder, then that might actually work out in our favor when it comes to indies and moderates. Same-sex marriage doesn't seem to have the same "boo" factor that it used to have and the right-wing is looking increasingly out of touch with most people when it comes to LGBT equality.

[HockeyMom]

2. Pope Ricky did

in the Primary. That is the problem. Romney had to appeal to the religious right wing base, and now has to somehow move to more the center.

[Sheepshank]

3. When the two of them are constantly being drawn as too similar to tell apart......

I'd say both are making efforts to clarify obvious and big differences.

Good.