A reader writes:
I don’t think Proposition 8 is a core test of Obama’s support for gay equality. This is one of the many reasons how Obama has managed such a successful campaign. Consonant to his calm and even temperament is a tendency to never do anything “radical” policy-wise and sway too far left or too far right of a moderate social values agenda. He’s trying to make inroads in an electorate divided by a culture war.
Trust me, I would love the day when a President, especially one who is a professor of constitutional law, can come out and support gay marriage, but why should Obama, for the sake of a higher moral ground, create his own “October Surprise” and let the potential chance of gay marriage passing in California limit his ability to solve our problems abroad, energy, healthcare, education, the economy, etc. This is exactly what happens to Democratic candidates all the time, like Kerry in 2004. They take a higher moral ground and do things the right way and lose in the long run.
Just yesterday, Sarah Palin, your favorite VP candidate and mine, said, "I wish on a federal level that that’s where we would go because I don’t support gay marriage," on defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Sure, Barack Obama is not out there on the front lines fighting for one issue to protect the rights of all of us (I definitely don’t see this as an interest group issue), but he is certainly not the Republican ticket. He would not appoint conservative judges.
Proposition 8 must be rejected, but the extent of Barack Obama’s role in telling individual states how to vote on amendments would speak to an extension of big government that I don’t think he’s trying to pump up with two weeks to go.
The Dish 