I wrote two weeks ago that same-sex marriage had turned into a test of character and leadership for President Obama. With his interview on May 9, the president passed the test, saying for the first time that he supports the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry.
In the wake of Vice President Biden’s remarks supportive of marriage equality, the continued presidential equivocation had made Obama look weak and evasive. Weak because he — and his unfortunate spokesman — had to keep fudging as Democratic official after official, from governors to his own Cabinet secretaries, expressed clear support for marriage equality. Evasive because he seemed to be hiding the ball from voters, who were entitled to know what the president thinks “before” they decide on a second term. And the longer Obama waited, the worse he looked. The president’s first stall tactic, that he was “evolving” on the issue, didn’t cut it anymore.
Granted, the president had already taken huge — indeed, brave — steps in support of gay rights. He ended “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which the last Democratic president implemented. He instructed his Justice Department to stop defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which the last Democratic president signed. And in comparison to Mitt Romney on gay rights, there is no comparison. Romney supports a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. Obama was tiptoeing his way toward support of marriage equality. But the tiptoeing had become the problem — a bigger problem, in fact, than would be created by Obama’s expressing support for same-sex marriage now, even with the election looming.
Overcoming fears
The president’s political advisers had been reluctant to have him take the plunge on gay marriage for fear of offending key voters. The concern was not so much African-Americans, who tend to oppose same-sex marriage, as white working-class voters in swing states such as North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio. But whether that earlier political calculus was correct, in a post-Biden-comment world, the better strategy was to get it over with, take the hit with some voters and reap the benefits of coming out in support of marriage equality.