Why didn't Obama cancel his summit with Putin over their new anti-gay laws and policies?

[phleshdef]

68. Doing it via executive order would've been stupid.

That would have led to a band aid of a policy that would've taken the pressure off of Congress to get rid of it for real. I'm glad he didn't do that.

"But it was ignored, right up until the campaign of 2012 was looming"
-> More evidence that your knowledge of recent history is flawed. The repeal was passed in 2010. Well before the election in November of 2012. The true fight for repeal began earlier that year in May when the bill was attached to the Defense Authorization bill. Prior to that, Congress and the President has just spent the last year and 4 months dealing with passing the stimulus, passing the healthcare bill, passing finance reform, saving the auto industry, overseeing the winding down in Iraq, etc. Its not like there aren't a whole host of issues facing this country all the time. A year and 4 months is nothing in the grand scheme of time. Within 7 months of the beginning, legislatively, repeal was passed.

Your attitude regarding the time he took getting it done is childish and displays a gross naiveté in regard to expectations and the standard way "stuff" works in the business of governing in this country.