Good, that will upset the looney-toons in the US of A

Update, he actually did come out in favour of gay marriage. Uhhh, honestly about time. I mean, we've kinda been going on the assumption that he's always been in favour of gay marriage, and only recently decided to stop lying about that, but maybe that's just me. It's also kind of a "one step forward, two steps back" kinda day, given that North Carolina just passed amendment 1, a constitutional amendment which banned not only same-sex marriage, but also any kind of legal recognition for any kind of relationship other than a heterosexual marriage, (so heterosexual, cohabiting couple is no longer a thing either). Which is really, really stupid. Point is, he can endorse it as much as he wants, when is he actually going to do anything about it?

Second term maybe?

I have to say that I'm surprised. I hope that he made the right call here - myself, I would have just waited until after the election. I was also sort of enjoying the Stalinism of the mixed signals that were being sent previously.

2ND TERM? It does not matter who wins, we are screwed.

I read an analysis of it that was interesting. It basically said, the people he pisses off by doing this weren't going to vote for him anyway, and by prevaricating he was pissing off the democratic base voters, who are, on the whole pro-LGBT rights. And by appearing indecisive on the issue he was turning off independents who generally don't really care either way about gay marriage, and are more interested in seeing someone act decisively. Also however wishy washy Obama has been on the issue, he still has a stronger record of being pro gay rights than Romney has of being anti-gay rights, what with his previously having straight up endorsed gay marriage when he was Governor of Massachusetts.

Way past time.

Yes, perhaps he's only doing it now to rev up the liberal base for the election, but it's still very welcome news.

I suppose, living in Canada, a country that has had gay marriage for almost a decade at this point, I have the luxury of being cynical about this, whereas American LGBT people and their allies have to take what they can get.

It's a smart move necause Romney will be anti and the Gay lobby will give him hell during the election campaign

Precisely. Whether they like it or not, the bigots fighting this are outnumbered and dying off. The youth have no problem with homosexuality, even Republicans.

Bout time Obama! Woo Biden forcing this to finally happen.

Good call politically, better call socially, its ridiculous the lack of rights that gay couples have in America because they cannot get married.

Woo Obama!

Also, this thread isn't about North Carolina or anything, but it is abotu gay marriage, so I'm going to say it here. Amendment 1 is why you don't put minority rights to a vote.

This makes me curious about the Biden thing last week. It's possible that really was spontaneous and that this is a response to it, but I wonder now if having Biden come out in favor of gay marriage first might have been the plan all along. Let him do it and gauge the response, and then have the President do it too, if all went well.

Obama has already done more for gay rights than any President in history, it's not even close.

Amendment 1 is why Christianity needs to be banned.

"About time" in the sense that everyone should have agreed to this, like, a million years ago. But not "right on time" in the sense that Obama chose a good moment to be the first president to endorse gay marriage openly - the past few years have been huge for gay people nationally, i at least have perceived a shifting culture, and iirc some evangelical church leaders even acknowledged that they had lost the fight, that the young in this country pretty much all accept it.

it doesn't matter though because gay marriage won't be legal in all 50 states until probably something like 2025, probably around the same time of weed legalization.

Weed will never be legalized. We're not suicidal.

He chose the cash of his gay supporters over the votes of his black supporters. We'll see if that was a good bet.

Somehow I doubt gay marriage is the single biggest issue for most African American voters. The fact that the Republicans want to suppress their vote throughout the South might be more important.

"Weed will never be legalized. We're not suicidal."

Lol, please. Look Putin I'm more of a statist than most on these forums but the drug wars are not only being lost, they're not even worthwhile.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/HarmCausedByDrugsTable.svg

"And by appearing indecisive on the issue he was turning off independents who generally don't really care either way about gay marriage, and are more interested in seeing someone act decisively."

Maybe, but I don't know how clear that is. When actually given a chance to vote on it, independents in the US have had a marked tendency to show up and vote against gay marriage. It probably is true that not many will vote on that issue, though.

"Amendment 1 is why Christianity needs to be banned."

lol, how would that work? Please fill in the details for us.

"Amendment 1 is why Christianity needs to be banned." - Putin

Hypocrisy at its finest! That's like saying that while the government can't dictate who you spend your life with, it should be able to dictate what you believe. (It shouldn't be able to tell you either) I have a theory that you feel like have been oppressed, and you want to even the playing field. However, instead of doing it by having equal treatment of everyoneand end biggotry, you want to get the biggest bully you can find, an oppressive government maybe, that hates the same people you do. I find you no better than the racists, biggots, and ideologues that you constantly rail against. You are just on the other side of the spectrum.

"Amendment 1 is why Christianity needs to be banned." - Putin

lol yeah this is pretty fucking funny. i'm having trouble even seeing what putin meant by it

"Weed will never be legalized. We're not suicidal."

Lol.

"When actually given a chance to vote on it, independents in the US have had a marked tendency to show up and vote against gay marriage."

I'd like to see stats on that.

"lol, how would that work? Please fill in the details for us."

Tax the churches until they go bankrupt.

"That's like saying that while the government can't dictate who you spend your life with, it
should be able to dictate what you believe."

A wise man once said, "We don't allow our enemies to have guns, why let them have ideas?"

y quick thoughts:

On Obama's backing it:

I thought he might back this, albeit after he won a second term (if he does indeed win a second term, which I believe he will, Obama vs. Romney isn't enough of a show-stopper for the GOP to topple Obama, in my opinion...ironically, as much as I can't stand his views and aspects of the man himself, Ron Paul would probably be a more dynamic and "real" choice, Obama vs. Paul is much more a pro/con sort of evaluation of real differences, Obama/Romney, for lack of a better metaphor, is Coke/Vanilla Coke, and Incumbent Coke Classic wins that EVERY time!) ;)

On the issue:

It's about time, YES, gay marriage should be legalized nation-wide...I entirely disagree that this is a matter to be decided amongst the states, as 1. That's led to nothing but more of a mess over the issue (see: my native California saying "Yes" then "No" and now "Maybe" pending another ruling on Prop 8) and 2. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE...if they can find a place that will marry them, they should be allowed to without the state butting in and saying their love isn't "valid" enough to be considered marriage, with all the legal and social benefits that entails.

On the impact it may have on the 2012 race:

Well, Obama was never going to win in the South as it is...

The more North you go, the more swing-states it may play well in...but how well will this go over in those two big Electoral gamble-battleground states, Ohio and Florida?

^Copied and pasted from the thread I started in error before I saw 2WL had beaten me to it...