I am not sure how shocked Americans are to know President Barack Obama supports same-gender marriages.
But I was shocked when I read news reports about the president’s announcement that Republicans accused Obama of “playing politics.”
Of course he is.
Obama faces a tough re-election campaign with only six months left to shore up an improving but still weak economy and a constituency not exactly enamored with his first term in areas that it considers key: the environment, immigration and social services.
So, while public opinion polls show Americans almost split evenly on the issue of same-gender marriages, the same polls show 71 percent of voters aged 18-29 favor it.
Obama needs that voting block, and as the political analysts write, he needed an issue to invigorate the voting block that got him elected in 2008.
Likewise, defecting national news coverage from what the real issues in the campaign should be — the economy, foreign policy, Social Security, the national debt and even immigration — at least for a little while, probably is not a bad tactic.
But come November, how many voters — other than those on the extreme ends of the political fray — will cast a vote based on whether a man or a woman should have the right to marry someone of the same gender?
The Obama team also knows that the president’s opponent, Mitt Romney, has avoided taking a stand on the issue.
But he did once Obama did, and of course, it’s the opposite stance.
Hmmmm.
I wonder if Romney is playing politics?
Resources:
- http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/…
- http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/…
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/obamas/…
- http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/…
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