Newsweek trumpets President Obama as the "first gay president" on their latest cover. With a halo no less!
This is justified by the president saying, "I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
Not that he would support changing legislation to recognize it or back court challenges to establish same-sex marriage--just that he is personally affirming his evolved opinion. Add in that the president is worried about Hollywood money and that Vice President Biden actually triggered the hasty declaration, and my puzzlement about the president's bravery on this only increases.
For this President Obama is praised? Really?
I don't want to hear one more word about how high the bar is for this president. My God, President Obama's position would need to evolve further to match Dick Cheney's view on same-sex marriage:
"I think freedom means freedom for everybody," said the former vice president, "and you ought to have the right to make whatever choice you want to make with respect to your own personal situation."
"I certainly don't have any problem with it," he added.
Seriously, rather than bestowing the title, "first gay president" on Obama, shouldn't Newsweek be asking if he's "same-sex marriage friendly enough?"
You know, even if this was mostly a domestic policy blog I wouldn't feel compelled to write about the gay marriage issue itself. It just isn't of much interest to me one way or the other. While I think that tradition should hold on this issue regardless of how civil unions evolve, it just isn't that important to me.
But the way the media plays this? Oh yeah. That's of interest to me. The bar has been set pretty darned low for this president by this media.
