Discussion for article #233130
Upon reading Pres. Obama’s answers to the BuzzFeed interviewer, it sounds to me like David Axelrod did not misconstrue anything. I understand the desire to save face, but Pres. Obama is splitting hairs here with his response. That said, I am happy Mr. Obama won both elections, as I believed then–and now–he was the best man running. President Obama, thank you for working so diligently for the American people – especially in light of the unbelievable arrogant obtuseness you faced from the other side. I only wish you had given up being nice after the first 365 days. They only spit in your face then crow about it to their “base.” Thank you.
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I’m gay, and the president’s position was actually mine initially too. I remember thinking, “What’s the big deal? We get the same rights and we call it civil union or something.” Just 15 years ago the idea of gay marriage actually happening seemed utterly ludicrous. I’m glad my friends fought for the actual term marriage and convinced me it was the way to go, but even I was skeptical about pushing for the term back when this all started. It’s still mind boggling. I never expected it to happen in my lifetime, much less this quickly.
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Yeah, this came off a bit like trying to tap dance around the issue with a broken leg. He would have been better off just not answering questions on this entirely.
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Unlike what is misleadingly implied in the headline, it seems it was Ben Smith who used the term ‘bullshitting’ – not Obama. Its uncharacteristic of Obama to use this kind of term in public. No doubt the man swears his head off in private – and he has every reason to – but please – this title is just obnoxious click bait. As for the substance, I see why he moderated his stance. And I didn’t really care because I always understood where he was coming from and he had his eye on the end goal. He had to get elected to affect the desired change and he did it. So what is the complaint now?
I’ll add, I don’t think Obama should interview with Buzzfeed. Smith has always practiced a kind of gothca journalism. He was such an asshole during the primary when he reported for Politico. He was obviously a Hillary guy. I used to read and comment on his column to push back.
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I gotta call BS on this one. Either it’s right, and should be a right, or it’s not; there is no squaring of one’s “personal belief” with politics, another way of saying other people’s prejudices. Did he need to square his personal beliefs about racial equality with other people’s sincerely held beliefs to the contrary? Shameful. Straight 2-time O-voter am I.
I disagree. It’s not “splitting hairs” at all. And don’t forget, Obama’s not just a member of on the more conservative professions we have, but he taught constitutional law for a number of years. Him taking a mostly legalistic view should be no surprise.
I was married in church - solely in deference to my wife’s wanting me to cooperate with a ‘harmless’ placating of her perception of her parent’s wishes (I’ve never been convinced she was correct in thinking so.). My own parents were married by a licensing official and stayed married 55 years; I would have preferred that to the mild feelings of hypocrisy over the goofy religiosity entailed in things like the ‘preparation’ and ceremony(particularly the former). But I was mature enough to recognize that never was the marriage without dirge went, that Marriage is a matter of more worth Than to be dealt in by attorneyship, and that hypocrisy stalks us all. Mostly, the importance of the commitment justifies putting up with a lot more crap than tribalistic hoo-hah.
But I also realized not everyone shares my confidence in religious belief as anachronistic bull, and granted the possibility my future wife knew best (and for not the last time). Marriage ceremonies are very often the occasion for bonding communities beyond the couple and their families, and ceremony has more meaning to others than to me.
On top of all that are the notions that marriage licensing is clearly within state authority and that the federal government’s authority in the area is limited to ensuring legal equality. Until very recently, I’ve assumed that it would be difficult to foresee a federal court system as dominated by conservatives as ours getting to the point where we are now.
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It’s not like ‘gotcha’ is an outlier in the media biz.
I go back to before Anderson.Those days were worse: gotchaism showed up as smears in pundit pieces and gossip columns. Better I think for Ben Smith and Billo and the white Fox news heehaws to put the stoopid straight to you in the most crudely populist terms than be unable to respond to some smear planted with Joe Alsop.
Besides, I think the president likes doing thisInto the Lion’s Den crap-- like with the Prayer Breakfast, meeting with megachurch whackos, and those awful Al Smith dinners where the attendees all agree to pretend his ‘kind’ only used to be there to serve tables.
Yeah – I know. I just cannot stand Ben Smith. I remember him always pushing the Obama is anti-semitic meme.
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Everyone needs a little Shock and AWEselrod, now and again to sell a book. I gotta say, it is pretty untimely to bring this up now, practically the same day as hitting a brick Alabama. OTOH, this is just more lame-stream media and right wing craziness aimed at stirring stuff up. Everywhere we go, there we are; 'tis a pity, so are the Huckabees.
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So you and all of us owe an immense debt to the activists who did have that vision.
That’s a presidential response to private sector book salesmanship.
Thank you,
Not necessarily that simple. Here’s Dan Savage on Axelrod’s revelation:
RealClearPolitics isn’t exactly a go-to news source for me, but they have both the video and a writeup of Savage’s appearance on Chris Hayes’ show last night. The writeup leaves out some good stuff, like Savage’s perfect FDR comparison, but it’s not bad if you can’t watch the video. We’d all love our leaders to be somehow both perfectly pure and spectacularly effective; but in the real world, this is how progress is made. Watch the interview if you can; Savage is terrific.
[Geez, RCP, can’t you just attach brief summaries to your links?]
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I felt the same.
In the beginning, I thought “why not accept civil unions as long as they carried all of the same rights and privileges as marriage?”. Then, I read the positions of marriage equality activists on the subject, and I was convinced that anything other than full marriage equality was unacceptable. Everything less than that relegated gay and lesbian Americans to second-class citizenship for no other reason than someone elses’ bias.
Evolution. It happens.