It’s the love that dare not speak its name. That would be the love of hiding truth in the cause of self.
All the talk in ObamaLand about the president “evolving” on gay marriage is hokum. His wink and nod is code to gay-marriage supporters that he is with them, but can’t come out for “political” reasons.
Political, in this case, means democracy. Obama doesn’t want to face the consequences of what could be an unpopular move in some swing states and among religious black voters. He wants to play both sides, then openly support gay marriage only after a second term is secured.
Thankfully, that human hand grenade, Vice President Joe Biden, blew up the cynical ploy by saying he is “comfortable” with gay marriage, so the pressure is mounting on Obama to come clean. Ed Rendell, a Democratic former governor of Pennsylvania, chided Obama yesterday to “man up” and be, well, straight with America.
I agree. Same-sex marriage is an issue whose time has come, even though as many as 30 states are now formally opposed to recognizing it.
Yet Obama probably won’t emerge from his handmade closet because he’s hooked on the idea that he can win four more years without revealing what he would do with them.
Same-sex marriage is one of many issues where he is playing hide the pea from voters. As he has proven, he sees elections not as conferring a mandate on specific policies, but as blank checks.
His failure to recognize the difference accounts for much of the unhappiness with his policies, which are far more liberal than most voters expected. Yet he’s up to his old tricks again.
Remember his open-mike moment with Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, where he pleaded for “space” on missile-defense talks?
“This is my last election,” Obama whispered. “After my election, I have more flexibility.”
Secret plans also are thought to be on hold in the Mideast, with reports saying Obama told Palestinians he will be free to be tougher on Israel in a second term. And many Israelis feel he is trying to run out the clock on Iran and, once re-elected, would accept Iranian nukes.
Then there are the entitlement and budget issues. So far, Obama has advanced two ideas: The Buffett Rule, which would require a tax of 30 percent on incomes over $1 million, and ending manufacturing-tax credits for oil companies.
Each would yield $4 billion a year — against a deficit running at $1.3 trillion.
His other big idea — raising taxes on the two top income-tax brackets, would bring in $70 billion a year. Whoopee.
Those paltry measures don’t make a dent in the runaway-deficit problems, meaning that unless he’s got something else up his sleeve, we’re Greece if he wins.
The math, and the markets, will force the next president to face Medicare and Medicaid reform, discretionary-spending cuts and corporate-tax changes — in an economy that is barely growing. Voters deserve a detailed roadmap of how Obama and Mitt Romney would get us there.
Yet the president, who wants the perks of incumbency without the responsibility, is paying no attention to these looming disasters. His campaign is all about smear and distraction, until the morning after election night, when he presumably would get serious.
Or maybe not. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, testifying to Congress in February, conceded there is no there there when it comes to administration plans. Pressed by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, who has a plan for deficit reduction that Romney supports, Geithner was honest, in a chilling way.
“You are right to say we’re not coming before you today to say we have a definitive solution to that long-term problem,” Geithner said to Ryan. “What we do know is, we don’t like yours.”
There you have it. The president doesn’t have a plan on anything. Or, at least, plans he is willing to share with voters.
Maybe later. Maybe never.
Good teachers hurt by union ‘block’heads
“The union is so strong and Bloomberg is so strong. We’re like the peasants trapped in the middle.”
That is how a Brooklyn teacher described for me the war between City Hall and the United Federation of Teachers. The latest battle is over Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to close two dozen schools so half the teachers can be replaced. The union sued to stop him.
The teacher is at one of those schools, and seems to be reform-minded. He was one of scores who contacted me last year to charge his principal with cheating on transcripts and tests so students could graduate and make the school look good on paper.
After Chancellor Dennis Walcott said he wanted to hear from those teachers, this one told investigators his story. One result is that the school now will be closed and reopened, a bankruptcy-like maneuver that City Hall claims allows a shake-up of staff far beyond what the contract normally permits.
That means the teacher could lose his job. He wouldn’t be fired, but could have to find a spot in another school, or spend his days shuffling paper in the “reserve pool,” which is the rubber room by another name. Taxpayers will pay tens of millions to warehouse extra teachers.
There is a better way — but it’s up to the union. Its refusal to agree to a reasonable process for firing bad teachers is a disgrace that shames the profession and damages students. As the Brooklyn teacher says, “If you talk to teachers individually, 90 percent don’t want to protect bad teachers.”
Yet their union isn’t listening to them. And so, just as grass gets trampled when elephants fight, good teachers will be a casualty of their union’s obstructionism.
Gaul’s in O’s court
Mark the date — it’s official. Obama is a socialist. The New York Times, his media arm, says so.
“With the victory of the Socialist candidate, François Hollande, in the French presidential election, the White House has lost one of its closest allies on the Continent, but perhaps gained one with economic-policy beliefs more closely aligned with its own,” reporter Annie Lowrey wrote.
She added that Hollande believes America and France have a “convergence” on economic issues.
True story.
$omething is left out
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli still defends the gravy train of government pensions. “Guaranteed retirement benefits . . . have effectively provided economic security to Americans over many decades,” he told an amen audience yesterday.
Naturally, he left out the other side of the story. Average taxpayers are going broke funding those benefits, which are far more lavish than their own.
His omission makes DiNapoli half-right — and half-baked.
Trapped in a vicious cycle
Kubla Khan is messing with traffic again. The city’s daffy transit commissioner, who specializes in creating gridlock, is pushing 10,000 rent-a-bikes with promises they will make Xanadu safer. Before she’s finished, bikes will be the only thing moving.