Opinion: Obama won't change marriage equality stance pre-election [View all]

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Wed May 9, 2012, 02:03 PM - Edit history (1)

UPDATE: Obama said that civil unions are not sufficient and affirmed that "Same-sex couples shoul be able to get married" and I have never been happier to have been wrong in a prediction. It is a calculated political decision and it says good things that this is being analyzed in the WH as a positive move. My erroneous prediction is left unedited here for posterity.


This is an election season.

For a politician to change a long-standing position during an election the issue has to be seriously hurting him. It has to be like Humphrey giving up on the Vietnam War as a last ditch.

Obama's current stance is not hurting him more than changing that stance would so it is not going to happen. In my opinion.

Elections are when political expedience is most relatively acceptable. IMO.

I hope I am wrong in this because if Obama were to roll out a more liberal view on marriage equality it would mean they had the numbers or a theory to back it as a smart political move here and now. And I would be delighted to live somewhere where endorsing marriage equality garnered net votes.

(And as to whether Biden's comments were part of a strategy... no. C'mon. I love Joe Biden precisely because his utterances can never be assumed to be planned.)