Keeping his head down on teh gheys? (The White House)
President Obama is scheduled to appear in North Carolina tomorrow. Will he speak out against the anti-gay amendment,
as so many local conservatives and Republicans have already done? The
Washington Post says, "Nope."
Two weeks from now, North Carolina will hold a public referendum on what could become one of the toughest anti-gay measures in the country: a far-reaching proposal to amend the state constitution to ban civil unions and domestic partnerships. But President Obama is not expected to touch the subject when he appears in Chapel Hill on Tuesday — even though it is roiling the electorate there.
Instead, Obama will talk about college loans, his aides said, kicking off a two-day, three-state tour designed to energize the youth vote. His delicate sidestep of Amendment One, a ballot initiative to be decided May 8 that would recognize marriage between a man and a woman as the only legal domestic partnership in North Carolina, is seen by some as another sign that he is not fully committed to gay rights — an interpretation that could dampen the enthusiasm of the young voters he is trying to court.
His campaign spokespeople have already announced the President's opposition before, so it's not a new position. Surely, he can encourage them not to pass an amendment
many are saying hurts women, and is bad for business, even
Fortune 500 bosses in North Carolina say so. He
could just say the Duke energy CEO speaks the truth on how North Carolina will prosper economically.
It certainly appears it would fire up the base. When his spokespeople announced his opposition, it was trumpeted from the front page of a major progressive blog not once, but twice.
Imagine if he said the words himself, in public, so voters can hear them out of his own mouth? That would be awesome, and a big help for reaching the voters the campaign needs to reach.
Rumors are Public Policy Polling will be delivering some encouraging news tomorrow. It's certainly be great for the campaign to get a one-two punch of momentum on Tuesday.
Hopefully, this report's prognosticating is wrong and the president will not disappoint the many college kids who have been working so hard across the state. Early voting turnout at college campuses has been very high, amost a third of Duke University students have already voted. WaPo spoke to one of kids working on a campsus about their report:
“It’s a little bit of a missed opportunity,” said Josh Orol, 20, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leader of a campus movement to defeat Amendment One. “I didn’t expect him to talk at length about it. I know he has come out publicly against it. But I sort of hoped he would at least name-drop a little bit. It’s disappointing.”
Razor-sharp victory, delivered by youthful enthusiasm in 2008, that isn't something to just take for granted the second go-around.
Updated: Spotted moments ago on Twitter:
A kid can Hope™. That would definitely be a President Bartlett move. Or whatever President George Clooney is playing this week.