“Losing it” should be President Obama’s re-election slogan. In trying to clean up after loose lips Vice-President Joe Biden’s gay marriage fumble, President Obama looks like the master of an undisciplined operation that should be dubbed clueless in the White House. After Biden forced him into a corner after his Sunday May 6th Meet the Press appearance, Obama concluded now was the time to appease the gay lobby, rake in large campaign donations and declare his support for same sex marriage.
Demonstrating how desperate the mainstream media is to prop up Obama no matter he does, the Washington Post published a smear piece alleging Mitt Romney bullied a gay classmate in high school. This looks like a coordinated effort between the Post and the White House to distract Americans from Obama’s gay gaffe, which is beyond disturbing for a national news publication.
In his TV appearance Biden said unequivocally: “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women . . .are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.” When the president of the United States repeatedly makes oblique statements that his position on gay marriage is “evolving” like a weather report, it is a PR disaster of the greatest proportion when the Vice President states just the opposite.
Within minutes of Biden’s blunder, senior White House adviser David Axelrod tweeted “What VP said — that all married couples should have exactly the same legal rights — is precisely POTUS’s position.” Suddenly, Americans are confused because Obama, Biden’s boss, never stated a position on same sex marriage. Damage control ensued and a Biden spokesperson said that’s not really what joking Joe meant.
But the mess was only just beginning. Monday morning Education Secretary Arne Duncan jumped on the gay marriage bandwagon, saying he supported it too along with Joe. This bad idea to bring another Obama official into the gay marriage fracas was probably hatched by the White House to spin Joe’s comments as “personal views” rather than a policy position at odds with Obama. But when you are the Vice-President of the United States, the American people don’t view your opinion as personal.
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Later that day, White House spokesperson Jay Carney inherited a mess, he made even messier. As he got pilloried with questions from perplexed reporters, Carney spent lots of time trying to define the words personal, evolution and the president’s “well known position” on same sex marriage. Carney emphatically stated “The President said that his views on this are evolving. I think.”
Next a reporter asked: Is he getting ready to change?
MR. CARNEY: Not necessarily. I think he just said they were evolving. And that's at a personal level. His views on LGBT rights are crystal-clear and this administration has taken actions that are unparalleled to support those rights. And he'll continue to take those actions because he thinks that's the right thing to do.
Then this: “The Vice President spoke very clearly about the President's policies and they're entirely consistent with the policies that this President has supported. He also -- he talked about evolution in this country and other issues, and those were personal views,” said Carney.
From “well known” to “evolving” to “crystal clear,” Carney himself seemed confused and dazed about Obama’s position on gay marriage. Perhaps this is why Obama thought he finally had to end his evolution and declare his support for gay marriage to clean up the mess. Instead Obama made a big mistake.
Only 3% of the US voting population is gay. Obama’s ego has gotten so big, he thinks he can appease his special interest groups and people will just vote for him anyway because he’s Obama! By announcing his support for gay marriage he sent a message to other voters (blacks, whites Hispanics, independents) the millions of dollars in campaign contributions he receives from the much smaller gay voting block matter more than the 97% of the rest of the electorate.
Independents who make up 40% of the electorate want to hear about jobs not a lesson on social issues. Blacks don’t support gay marriage 55% oppose compared to 42% in favor and 95% voted for Obama in 2008. When the issue was put on the ballot in California, it was blacks who were instrumental in helping to vote it down. Blacks and black churches in Maryland have been key in securing the 55,000 signatures needed to put gay marriage on the ballot in November in Maryland. Over the past decade, the Americans in 30 states have voted against same sex marriage when it was put on the ballot.
Catholics don’t support same sex marriage and many Hispanics are Catholic and 67% of Hispanics voted for Obama in 2008. After the Obama administration mandated Catholic organizations pay for employees birth control pills under Obamacare, it seems he’s kissed the Catholic vote goodbye in 2012 with his gay marriage evolution.
If Republicans and Romney are smart, they will exploit Obama’s sloppy misstep on gay marriage and remind voters this is yet another ploy to distract Americans from his Obama’s awful economic. At the same time, Romney has an opportunity to woo deeply religious voters, who cannot embrace Obama’s position on same sex marriage. It didn’t take Romney three plus years to evolve into his position on gay marriage because he’s trying to unite the country around one message of “a better America” not a divided America.
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