Transformational

[ProSense]

Obama comes out, and makes history

By Greg Sargent

Obama, in his interview with ABC News: “At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” Video at the end of the post.

Whatever the actual impact of this in legislative terms, this is a major historical and cultural moment, and the President deserves kudos for it. Yes, he had to be pushed into taking this step, and those who hammered him ceaselessly on the issue deserve enormous credit for making this happen. But Obama himself has, in various ways, let it be known that he wants people to go out there and make him do the right thing. In this case, he responded.

There will be a lot of cynical media analysis to the effect that Obama only did this because Joe Biden forced him to do it and because his “evolving” position had become impossible to sustain. I wish those circumstances hadn’t been required to make this happen, and I frequently criticized the President for his equivocating. But happen it did, and this moment is a civil rights milestone. Obama has become the first — and only — sitting president to come out for full equality for gay and lesbian Americans.

- more -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/obama-comes-out-and-makes-history/2012/05/09/gIQAl1IeDU_blog.html

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. This is moving forward!

Republicans are going backwards. This is a campaign about moving forward on all issues and not being afraid.

[craigmatic]

2. Maybe I'm cynical but I think he thought this way all along just by looking at his own expeariences

and the people working for him. It wan't until he polled it that he decided to be for it. It was NC that pushed him to do this not Biden.

[lunatica]

3. So?

When you're President of ALL Americans no matter what party they belong to then pevery single move you make is political. It can't be helped nor can it be done in any different way.

What his personal opinions are is really secondary. He has to govern for all of us at the same time. I would hazard a guess that he was pressured by most Americans to say what he said today. Just like LBJ was pressured to sign the Civil Rights Act. This is how human rights get enacted every single time. Pressure from the people.

[ProSense]

4. Kick! n/t

[Scurrilous]

5. K & R