We can now conclude White House Communication Director Dan Pfeiffer's attempt to breeze past Kailie Joy Gray's questioning on Barack Obama's 1996 support of marriage equality at Netroots Nation is perhaps one of the worst spin backfires in recent memory.
Within 24 hours Pfeiffer's disavowal of Obama's 1996 position, the story exploded out of Netroots Nation, through the blogs and right to a lengthy feature story in the Sunday New York Times. Anderson Cooper was just one of a handful of cable outlets that spent time since speculating what was really up with Obama's forward and backward evolutionary process?
And the Times is back for more, this time columnist Maureen Dowd examines the many ways President Obama is "bi." As in binary, trying to have it both ways at once.
In particularly, on the issue of marriage equality.
Though Dowd lists many examples of the duality of Obama's many positions, it is fence sitting on marriage equality that seems to really get her ire up. Of course it's the topic on many New Yorkers minds, with last night's victory so fresh, tomorrow's celebration so immenient.
And, of course there was the most awkwardly timed and located fundraiser ever. Obama jetted into NYC at the climax of the community's battle at Albany to pick up $750,000 from the LGBT community and jetted back out. Anxiety was very high that night as the gay community wondered would New York's decades long battle for marriage equality live, or die yet again? All the while everyone surely wondered if the elephant in the room would be mentioned?
New York's well-heeled LGBT donors showed a duality of their own, alternately cheering and heckling the President to endorse marriage equality.
Maureen Dowd alludes to that night:
But for the president, “the fierce urgency of now” applies only to getting checks from the gay community, not getting up to speed with all the Americans who think it’s time for gay marriage.
As with “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” Obama is not leading the public, he’s following. And worse, the young, hip black president who was swept in on a gust of change, audacity and hope is lagging behind a couple of old, white conservatives — Dick Cheney and Ted Olson.
Sometimes, as Chris Christie put it, “the president has got to show up.”
He should draw inspiration from the gay community: one thing gays have to do, after all, is declare who they are at all costs.
On some of the most important issues facing this nation, it is time for the president to come out of the closet.
The White House issued a statement on New York passing marriage equality, it's here. I'll summarize:
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah state's rights blah blah blah blah blah blah the process worked blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
I worked really hard for Obama in 2008, in New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. It is genuinely sad to me that the leader I, and so many, campaigned to elect is now content to just watch our victories silently from a distance and craft carefully worded statements that pay no real recognition of the historic moment, or convey any sense of actually sharing in our community's unrestrained joy.
We were literally dancing in the streets of New York City Friday night in celebration of our families.
And Obama? He loves states rights and he is happy for the democratic process.
It's not surprising. It's politics as usual.