Gay Marriage, Obama and a Poll Tested Campaign [View all]

[Better Believe It]

Gay Marriage, Obama and a Poll Tested Campaign
By: Jon Walker
May 8, 2012



This is a small drop in support from 2011 and slight reversal of a recent trend. Slightly more Americans support same-sex marriage than oppose it, but the nation is basically evenly divided. Given that people who actually turn out to vote tend to be older than the general adult population, it is possible that the actual voting electorate is slightly opposed.


This is basically why President Obama has adopted the incredibly weaselly position that he is still “evolving” on gay marriage. With the country so evenly divided the political thinking is that actively supporting marriage equality would hurt him with half the electorate that opposes it, but it won’t really gain him anything.

While equality supporters would love to have a sitting president’s official backing, the Obama campaign seems to be banking on the fact that given how bad Mitt Romney is on LGBT issues, marriage equality supporters have nowhere else to go. Taking full advantage of the two party system allows a campaign to expect support for simply being least bad.

http://elections.firedoglake.com/2012/05/08/gay-marriage-obama-and-a-poll-tested-campaign/