Biden’s gay-marriage gaffe is mess for White House

[Locutus]

If Vice President Biden continues to make public appearances during this campaign, White House press secretary Jay Carney should be offered a membership in the janitors’ union. As things stand, the spokesman does not have the supplies necessary to clean up the mess Biden made in his appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Biden gave his full support to same-sex marriage — a position conspicuously at odds with the public stance of his boss, President Obama, who is widely assumed to share Biden’s views but who says that his own thinking is “evolving.”



The vice president said he is “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage, committing the classic Washington gaffe of accidentally speaking the truth. This bit of straight talk made Obama’s position — neither for nor against such unions but in an evolutionary state, not unlike the Galapagos finch — all the more untenable. On Monday, Biden took off for a campaign event in Tennessee, leaving Carney on cleanup duty. But the more Carney swabbed the mess, the more it spread.

CNN’s Jessica Yellin asked whether Obama was trying to “have it both ways before an election” and whether he should “stop dancing around the issue.”

ABC’s Jake Tapper said that “it seems cynical to hide this prior to the election” and that “I don’t want to hear the same talking points 15 times in a row.”

NBC’s Chuck Todd said with a grin, “So help me out here. He opposes bans on gay marriage, but he doesn’t yet support gay marriage?”

The pounding was so intense that radio personality Les Kinsolving, a gadfly who tries to ask the most outrageous question at briefings, was being overlooked. Midway through the briefing, he appeared to pass out, sliding to the floor. As he was being helped to a seat, Kinsolving called out, “I just have one question!”

Carney tried to parry the same-sex-marriage questions, gamely at first and then testily as reporters began to laugh at his answers. He grew uncharacteristically flustered. When an unrelated question came about whether Obama would support the reelection of scandal-plagued Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), Carney answered: “I mean — well, yes, sure. I just don’t — I haven’t — I haven’t been asked it before so I. . . . The president — I’ll have to — I’ll have to get back to you.”

more fun:


Vice President Biden’s gay-marriage gaffe is mess for White House - The Washington Post



Related fun:


Obama's vague gay marriage stance under scrutiny

News from The Associated Press



But wait, there's more:

Former DNC Chair Rendell: Obama Should 'Man Up' And Tell Gay Marriage Position





http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV?id={F24FEDA9-B880-42AA-B78B-FC5EFC1D4AC9}&title=Dem-Rendell-Obama-Should-Man-Up


Err:

White House Punts on Same Sex Marriage—Again



White House Punts on Same Sex Marriage

 

[WLDB]

He tends to screw up a lot when he's allowed out in public. I really dont get why Obama picked him.

 

[Bar Sinister]

Big deal. Only in the USA would gay marriage even be an issue. Get over it rednecks, homosexuals do exist; they're not going away; and sometimes they like to get married.

 

[shadowshiv]

CNN’s Jessica Yellin asked whether Obama was trying to “have it both ways before an election”

So, would that make Obama bi-sexual? LOL!

 

[Cliffy]

The vice president said he is “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage, committing the classic Washington gaffe of accidentally speaking the truth.

Says a lot about politics in general. It also seems that vice presidential candidates have all been a little to a lot dim witted for the past 5 or 6 that have held the job (Cheney being exempt. He was just evil.)

 

[jariax]

The vice president said he is “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage, committing the classic Washington gaffe of accidentally speaking the truth.

Says a lot about politics in general. It also seems that vice presidential candidates have all been a little to a lot dim witted for the past 5 or 6 that have held the job (Cheney being exempt. He was just evil.)

It's ironic. The biggest group he is trying to appease with this nuanced stance is the Catholics. The fundies are going to vote Republican anyway. Joe Biden, one of the Catholics he seeks to woo, is a Catholic, and has no problem with being in favour of gay marriage.

Biden did not make a blunder. He simply has a different view than the President on this issue, just as Cheney had a different view than Bush on the issue.

 

[Walter]

Says a lot about politics in general. It also seems that vice presidential candidates have all been a little to a lot dim witted for the past 5 or 6 that have held the job (Cheney being exempt. He was just evil.)

Is that the same Dick Cheney who supports homosexual marriage? You're very ignorant of many things.
Joe Scarborough: 'When Is The President Going To Be As Brave As Dick Cheney?' | ThinkProgress

 

[TenPenny]

So, you're saying that while in office, Dick Cheney publicly supported gay marriage?

 

[Walter]

So, you're saying that while in office, Dick Cheney publicly supported gay marriage?

Look it up.

 

[JLM]

Not knowing anything about the Weekly Standard, I wouldn't put any stock in a single thing it prints until I find out. On a scale of 1-10 for reputability and the National Enquirer being at 0.5, where would the Weekly Standard fit in?

 

[TenPenny]

Look it up.

go right ahead and do that. Post the links to his public statements while in office.

 

[Cliffy]

Is that the same Dick Cheney who supports homosexual marriage? You're very ignorant of many things.
Joe Scarborough: 'When Is The President Going To Be As Brave As Dick Cheney?' | ThinkProgress

I wasn't necessarily saying Cheney was evil because of any particular stance on any issue. He was just an evil person with no conscience at all on any issue. The man is, at the least, a sociopath, if not a full blown psychopath. He intentionally mislead the American public in order to make huge profits for his "former" company Halliburton. Your unquestioning support of such dickheads puts you in the same category.

And for the neg rep I am about to receive from you: I give thanks to the Creator and all that is good about humanity.

 

[Walter]

Not knowing anything about the Weekly Standard, I wouldn't put any stock in a single thing it prints until I find out. On a scale of 1-10 for reputability and the National Enquirer being at 0.5, where would the Weekly Standard fit in?

Have you asked John Edwards about the reputability of the National Enquirer?

 

[JLM]

Have you asked John Edwards about the reputability of the National Enquirer?

Nah, haven't talked to John lately!

 

[Locutus]

Bobo finally flipped:


“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,”

Obama endorses same-sex marriage - The Washington Post

 

[Corduroy]

The only logical conclusion from this is that Obama has always supported gay marriage personally. He hasn't done so publicly for political reasons. Now he's coming out in support because Biden ****ed up. It's more likely that he would have gladly gone through the election without ever mentioning it, but Biden really gave him no choice.

 

[EagleSmack]

You mean Obama flip-flopped? NPR is saying that he's... evolved. Such a double standard.

P.S. I could care less if gay people want to get married. Let them.

Big deal. Only in the USA would gay marriage even be an issue. Get over it rednecks, homosexuals do exist; they're not going away; and sometimes they like to get married.

Only in the U.S? All other countries allow gay marriage?

 

[Walter]

Only in the U.S? All other countries allow gay marriage?

Notice his avatar initials - BS.

 

[Locutus]

Gay Marriage Reversal Means Cash For Obama



So he did it for votes and money? I'm shocked.






President Barack Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage carries a political cost, but it also means floods of cash from wealthy gay donors and disillusioned young people eager to be inspired by him again.

After three years of political compromise on issues from health care reform to spending cuts, Obama delivered a surprise gift to what many of his core supporters view as the civil rights issue of the day, simply by saying what everyone assumed he believed. But the distinction between implying a change and saying it outright will more than symbolic in the crucial area of campaign fundraising. Already, gay donors, mostly men, reportedly constitute 1 in 6 of Obama’s top fundraisers known as bundlers. And in the first 90 minutes after the news broke Wednesday, the campaign received $1 million in spontaneous contributions, a Democrat told BuzzFeed.


more


Gay Marriage Reversal Means Cash For Obama

One of the better dissections of what this clown said (or at least what one of his lackies wrote for him):


The debate over same sex “marriage” has engaged the heartfelt feelings and convictions of millions of Americans. Then there is Barack Obama.

In his ABC interview, the president pretended that his much touted “evolution” had now led him, ineluctably, to speak out now, today; he simply could longer stay silent. ABC let him off the hook, but this is not a credible account. In March, the Washington Post was reporting the debate among his advisers on whether the issue would help or hurt the reelection campaign and what, therefore, Obama should say: “Obama’s top political advisers have held serious discussions with leading Democrats about the upsides and downsides of coming out for gay marriage before the fall election.”
The same advisers told the Post that Obama would make the decision based on his gut, but that is an insulting way to refer to the vice president. There is no evidence that Obama planned to speak until Joe Biden said last weekend that he was for gay “marriage” and forced the issue.



In fact, Obama has not “evolved”—he has changed his position whenever his political fortunes required him to do so. Running for the Illinois state senate from a trendy area of Chicago in 1996, he was for gay marriage. “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,” he wrote in answer to a questionnaire back then. In 2004, he was running for the U.S. Senate and needed to appeal to voters statewide. So he evolved, and favored civil unions but opposed homosexual “marriage.” In 2008, running for president, he said, “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.” Now in 2012, facing a tough reelection campaign where he needs energized supporters of gay “marriage” and has disappointed them with his refusal to give them his support, he is for it. To paraphrase John Kerry, he was for it before he was against it before he was for it again.


Mr. Obama’s statement today is a marvel:


“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘don't ask, don't tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point 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.”
The president, when he says, “at a certain point I’ve just concluded,” appears to refer to the point where Joe Biden smoked him out, unintentionally no doubt (as are most of Biden’s actions). And it is important “for me personally” to speak, the president says; this isn’t politics, you see, but some kind of testimony, a baring of the soul.

But Mr. Obama actually did bare his soul unintentionally today (perhaps the Biden disease is catching) with his astonishing characterization of American fighting men and women, whom he referred to as “those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf.” Really?

Most Americans thought they were fighting for the country, not on Barack Obama’s behalf. Slip of the tongue, to be sure, but can one think of another president who’d have made it? They are fighting under his command, under his orders, to be sure, but this particular locution is offensive and solipsistic. Mr. Obama has switched his position on the sanctity of marriage back and forth and has a new one, again, today, revealed when politics made that advisable to him and to his campaign. Whether this is the end or he will “evolve” some more is anyone’s guess.
But let’s leave our soldiers out of this. They aren’t fighting for Mr. Obama and his campaign, and no one sent them out to risk their lives to win same sex “marriage.”




sauce: ‘On My Behalf’ | The Weekly Standard

 

[JLM]

So, you're saying that while in office, Dick Cheney publicly supported gay marriage?

Did I hear it somewhere that Cheney has that issue right in his own family?