Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I have been bemused by the inside the beltway media villagers and bloviators since Sunday when Vice President Joe Biden on Meet The Press Gregory said he supports equality of marriage rights for same-sex couples.
The media villagers went into a feeding frenzy trying to manufacture a "controvery" — because that's what they do: Biden takes a position different from the president… White House tries to walk back Biden comments… oh wait, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says he supports equality of marriage rights for same-sex couples also… White House press secretary parses statements… LGBT community tells Obama to "evolve already"… Democrats are divided!… MarriageGate!
It's almost as if none of these media villagers had a clue as to what was actually going on. Are they all so out of touch with reality that they don't recognize a "trial balloon" when they see one? The Vice President and cabinent secretaries do not go off talking points, especially during an election year. Their comments were deliberate and intentional. Pay attention.
I'd bet my last dollar that the Obama campaign was doing polling in key states to see whether these trial ballons would hurt the campaign if the president announced that he had now "evolved" in his views to support equality of marriage rights for same-sex couples. Yes it's calculating — that's what campaigns do. So what?
Today we learned the trial balloon poll results. President Obama in an exclusive interview with ABC News tonight announced that he now supports equality of marriage rights for same-sex couples as a civil rights issue. So to the inside the beltway media villagers — doesn't anyone here know how to play this game? You've been played and made to look like fools.
Think Progress has a clip from the interview below the fold.
Is there a more a confused lot in life than gay Republicans? They support a political party that not only would deny them full equality and civil rights under the law that they claim to support, but there is a substantial element of the GOP that would quite literally like to see them all dead.
The Log Cabin Republicans’ R. Clarke Cooper was quick to try to discredit Obama’s announcement supporting marriage equality today, calling it “cold comfort” and “offensive and callous” in the immediate wake of Amendment One’s passage in North Carolina.
What, you think you are going to get a better deal from Willard "Mittens" Romney? (Who contributed to the organizations behind Prop. 8 in California). As Steve Benen writes today, Creating a clear contrast on marriage equality:
Mitt Romney, doesn't appear eager to discuss the matter, but he did answer some questions during an interview with a local affiliate in Colorado this morning.
Asked by Fox News's KDVR-TV about a bill that would have allowed civil unions for same-sex couples in Colorado, which died late Tuesday night, Mr. Romney reiterated his belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
"Well, when these issues were raised in my state of Massachusetts," he said, "I indicated my view, which is I do not favor marriage between people of the same gender, and I do not favor civil unions if they are identical to marriage other than by name. My view is the domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights and the like are appropriate, but that the others are not."
What did Romney mean by "and the like" and "the others"? The campaign won't say.
Regardless, even as President Obama appears set to break new ground, Romney is now positioned to the right of Bush/Cheney on legal recognition of same-sex partnerships — Dick Cheney endorsed marriage equality, and George W. Bush backed civil unions.
Yes, Bush was more progressive in 2004 than Romney is in 2012.
As the American mainstream becomes more progressive on these issues, Romney won't even back civil unions. He also opposed the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," despite bipartisan support and the backing of America's military leadership, and has signed the National Organization for Marriage's odious pledge, committing Romney to supporting an anti-gay amendment to the U.S. Constitution, nominating federal judges who'll rule against marriage equality, and defending the Defense of Marriage Act.
The contrast between the two major-party candidates in 2012 couldn't be much greater.
So while all the inside the beltway media villagers and bloviators were giving President Obama crap over the past several days about his position on equality of marriage rights for same-sex couples, Willard "Mittens" Romney got a free pass on his regressive far-right views that are out of touch with the views of a majority of Americans from the very same inside the beltway media villagers and bloviators. A more useless group of individuals I find hard to imagine.
This is a civil rights issue and Romney and the GOP are on the wrong side of history.
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