Only a cynic would suggest that President Obama’s sudden embrace of same-sex marriage is anything but what he claims: the end result of years of deep introspection and “evolution.”
Well, color us cynical.
Actually, everything suggests that it’s Obama’s about-face on the issue — announced in a hastily arranged, closely controlled ABC News interview — that is the epitome of cynicism.
It followed reports of growing disenchantment with Obama among his younger, liberal — and, especially, gay — supporters over his refusal to back same-sex marriage.
And it was accompanied by reports that gay donors — often a major source of funds for Democratic candidates — had threatened to turn off the money spigot.
More critically, the announcement followed Tuesday’s landslide electoral victory in North Carolina for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
(As a gay GOP group noted, Obama might have influenced that outcome had he finished “evolving” before the vote.)
That’s key, because Charlotte, NC, is set to host this summer’s Democratic National Convention, at which Obama will be renominated.
Were the Republicans holding their convention there instead, the airwaves would be flooded with outraged calls demanding that the event be moved in protest.
But with North Carolina a key battleground in what is shaping up as a tight race, Obama was quick to add that he supports states’ rights to decide the issue.
Two points:
* That distinction aligns him with former Vice President Dick Cheney on same-sex marriage.
* And it is totally at odds with his position on ObamaCare.
Nevertheless, Obama yesterday suggested that he’s been a gay-marriage supporter all along, hesitating only because he thought civil unions would be sufficient and that “for a lot of people, the word marriage was something that evokes very powerful traditions and religious beliefs.”
Yet to hear Obama tell it back in 2004, when he was running for the US Senate, he was one of those people.
“I’m a Christian,” he said then. “I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.”
And that followed an earlier statement — later disavowed — in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. So he was for it before he was against it — before he was for it.
Apparently, if you call it “evolution,” it’s not a flip-flop.
Clearly, Obama will reap some political benefits. He’ll be hailed as a conquering hero at George Clooney’s mega-fund-raiser tonight, and some gay groups are letting him know that all is now forgiven.
But we suspect that most Americans will recognize his flip-flop for what it truly is: a carefully calculated political ploy, designed for maximum political effect to shore up an increasingly unenthusiastic voter base.
That’s hardly historic.
Just, as noted, cynicism in action.