Watching President Obama sitting in the Oval Office speaking out in support of gay marriage, you couldn't help but notice how comfortable he was. I've described him in the past as being in the closet on gay marriage. Closeted people have a habit of cowering and answering questions tersely, often while on the run. But there he was, sitting back with the presidential seal right behind him, proudly laying out his beliefs, telling ABC's Robin Roberts, "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."
He was cool and confident. It was the 2008 Barack Obama, not the stiff, marble-mouthed 2011 guy who, rather than take a position, mumbled something about "evolving." Perhaps even more startling, on the website of his campaign -- which apparently took in $1 million dollars in 90 minutes yesterday from big donors and young contributors -- there it was, his quote at the top of the page: "Same-sex couples should be able to get married."
Barack Obama didn't just come out of the closet on gay marriage. He's flaunting it!
More precisely, he has, even if briefly and on only this one issue, liberated himself from the egg-shell-walking trappings of his job. It's wonderful to watch. And it's also a smart and bold political move -- and one he had to make -- in the midst of a lackluster election campaign, in which he draws a sharp difference between himself and Mitt Romney and reminds people that he has an edge.
It's already put Romney on the defensive, as the GOP candidate got testy when asked about gay marriage yesterday, and wound up coming out against civil unions too -- which even George W. Bush supported. Romney, who last week saw the embarrassing resignation of Richard Grenell, his newly-named openly gay foreign policy spokesperson, is now in a box. Trying to move to the middle, the campaign's gay meltdown over Grenell had Romney caving in to the far-right blowhard Bryan Fischer, even as Romney desperately tried to assure people it wasn't true. Fisher was mocking Romney a few days ago, wondering how Romney could let himself so easily be pushed around. "How is he going to stand up to North Korea if he can be pushed around by a yokel like me?" Fischer asked. "I don't think Romney is realizing the doubts that this begins to raise about his leadership."
The last thing Romney wants is to bow to the Bryan Fischers of world again, pandering to the extreme as he heads to the center. But the Bryan Fischers are going to be demanding Romney take on Obama very forcefully for so brazenly and extremely promoting the homosexual agenda now (even if a majority of Americans support it).
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