Neither would he have, until he met some people and talked to some people.

I am having a hard time differentiating the two

One's black

Obama is only 1/2 black, but Romney is 3/2 white, so it's sort of the same thing?

BOUGHT the election

Romney is actually half Mexican.

Also, awesome submitter/description combo.

I come out in support of the submitter/description marriage.

If the opposition to giving the same legal status to same sex unions is the religious and sacramental connotations of the word marriage, I've no problem with a system in which the state ONLY recognizes civil unions (marriage registrations requiring civil union paperwork), and the couples are on their own to find a church to give them a entirely symbolic ceremony.

It's actually pretty risky politically. It's sad to say, but it's hard to win the Presidency of the United States without the bigot vote. And there are a lot of bigoted blacks and Hispanics who were guaranteed to vote for him who won't now.

Yeah, "political suicide" would make a good tag.

I would think that, but I *have* to think this is some kind of strategic decision. I mean, there's no other reason he'd *do* it. Maybe it's designed to energize the base or something.

It either says something about me or says something about Obama's presidency that the fact that he does something makes me think there's some sort of cold political calculation in it.

Of course there is political calculation in this. All in all, I think it's the right course: there aren't too many evolutionary throwbacks who weren't already opposed to Obama, and being anti-gay is growing less and less acceptable these days. And I am guessing that black / Hispanic homophobes can be persuaded to come to their senses.

And yes, there does absolutely need to be a pragmatic assessment of political costs for championing a traditionally-disenfranchised group. Let's take a look at the Civil Rights Act: it's been 40+ years and the Democrats are still paying the price for it, with Republicans scoring easy victories over half the US just by dogwhistling to bigots. This has effectively meant that, thanks to the Civil Rights Act, Republicans have been able to block everything from unemployment benefits to action on global warming. Was the Civil Rights Act the right thing? Oh absolutely. Has it cost the Democrats (and the country)? Unquestionably.

The Hispanic community is, on average, in favor of gay marriage. (I believe it polls at like 67% in favor)

The blacks.... not so much.

Mitt Romney used the words "delicate" and "tender" in his response to this, which is sound bite gold. Obama is great at trolling the right.

Not a significant risk to reelection, or it would not have been done in an election cycle. Obama's got it sewn up against Romney, who has to win every right-leaning state and then every fence-sitting state to even stand a chance. Look at the data.

It's a slight gamble. Obama stands to galvanize the right slightly, but again, people in South Carolina were going to vote for Romney anyway and people in California are going to vote for Obama no matter what. The numbers are just not there for Romney. You can have all the red states you want; they don't add up to victory in electoral votes.

It also throws some social issue red meat to Obama's progressive-liberal base, which had been threatening to stay home in light of what seemed like inertia. I think on balance he gains more votes than he loses, though again the electoral college in almost any projection you look at has Obama taking it in a walk.

Waaah why can't the president do everything all the time my way without having to think about politics waaah

All Obama could dream of would be for Romney to turn 2012 into a Christian conservative crusade, playing in territory that is clearly not his own. If Obama had come out and said that he was for gay marriage on the campaign trail (he did not) or on his first week in office, nobody would care about this.

The timing is perfect. Who cares if it's political. Everything a politician does has to be done with mindfulness of the news cycle and recent events (Romney firing Grinnell, being a big one).

This was a well played move politically and it's one of the greatest pluses in Civil Rights history, so stop whining.

"The blacks.... not so much."

If there's one demographic I imagine Obama could persuade to stop being such homophobic jerks, it's black voters. Bear in mind that a lot of black opposition to homosexuality is a holdover of black churches' quest for respectability via orthodoxy, not a desire to find inferiors to hate.

As a fucking faggot, I find your demands that Obama be a simpering appeasing pussy on this issue disgusting. It's bad enough that he's obviously lying his ass off for political points, but to even bash him for pretending to give a shit is too much.

During the debates, Obama could perform a black mass, sodomize a moray eel, & then wipe his cock off with an American flag and still come away looking more likeable than the French speaking, uncharismatic flip flopper from New England.

Romney makes Al Gore look like Reagan.

Now I'll be disappointed when Obama doesn't do that stuff in the debates. What a letdown this presidency has been.

Bitch, please. I'm a faggot too.

I'm not bashing him, or demanding that he be a simpering appeasing pussy on the issue. I'm simply lamenting the current social state of our society, which is full of people who will undoubtedly let this determine whether they vote for Obama or not.

That's true, there are a lot of morons about. The thing is, maybe it's important on a longer reaching level that those people will actually have to stand up and make that vote, willingly, in front everyone, over never being put on the spot at all. Yes, as Bort points out above, raising issues in the face of an overwhelming majority of blindness does create long and far reaching problems for the entirety of our way of life, but isn't it worth it? Isn't it better to leave our children a legacy of problems created by our insistence on doing what's right than problems created by our fear of addressing what's wrong?

I think there's gonna be some athletic makeup gaysex in memedumpster's and dairyqueenlatifah's futures.

So I should thank you personally for letting the Teabaggers sweep into office in 2010. Thanks a lot, dumbass. People like you are the Republicans' secret weapon.

You're either with Obama, or with the terrorists. Moderates don't deserve citizenship.

I remember what happened the last time we tolerated voter apathy.

Hallelujia!

Ha ha ha ha ha!