Obama’s war of choice

Today, President Obama shocked the world by admitting that he doesn’t recoil in horror at the thought of boys marrying boys and girls marrying girls. He officially is no longer squeamish about it, completing an ‘evolution’ whose beginning just happened to coincide with his first run for public office. (A show on Fox—road-testing a ‘flip-flopper’ storyline, above—unearthed an old newspaper clipping tonight where Obama states his support for same-sex marriage, dated immediately prior to the launch of his political career. Makes me think his ‘evolution’ was less a natural process than a well-planned excursion.)

Still, actually hearing him say it was like living something out of a piece of feverish fan-fiction.

Most people agree that either Joe Biden’s loose lips on Meet The Press last weekend sunk The President’s ship, or that Obama stage-managed the MTP incident in order to force this politically radioactive issue into the spotlight (you gotta love your Fox News conspiracy theorists).

He didn’t shock me by coming out in favor of a progressive cause that even a casual political profile would suggest ought to be near and dear to his heart, but he took everyone by surprise by dropping the bomb in the middle of a slow news week, without the advantage of the bully pulpit one would think a politico would use to make an announcement of this import.

It turns out, according to since-published reports, that Obama had already made the decision and was planning a grand roll-out, closer to the convention this summer, but Joe Biden’s full-throated endorsement last weekend forced him to move his schedule up.

Now legally, his personal approval has no impact at all. He’s just voicing his opinion as a citizen, while adding explicitly that as President, he will make no move to impose his viewpoint upon the country’s legal process.

But when the President comes out in favor, or opposition to such a hot-button issue, it’s seismic. It matters. The issue becomes mainstream political thought immediately. It moves the issue directly to the political center of the politician’s party, the way W’s invasion of Iraq dragged the old-school GOP along into the gutter with him, and weakened it so badly that it fell the next election cycle to an insurgent Tea Party.

Honestly, I can’t figure out the political calculation—and neither can anyone else—but I don’t care. Pundits from msnbc to Fox Noise are scratching their heads, trying to figure out what Obama thought he had to gain politically from doing this, now.

The thing everybody agrees on is that it was risky/crazy, with no clear big upside. Especially coming one day after critical swing-state North Carolina voted overwhelmingly to codify gender discrimination. Or maybe it was because of that?

Only the tell-all tomes of the future know for sure.

From here and now, the only political math that makes any sense at all is that Obama is trying to woo uncommitted voters looking for a candidate to support who has the courage of his convictions, even if said convictions do not lead the candidate merrily down the Yellow Brick Road to electoral-college victory.

You know, the people who might have crossed party lines and voted for John McCain on character alone, before he betrayed everything he ever believed in during the 2008 primaries.

And I’m not even sure those voters exist anymore.

Or perhaps Obama did it strictly out of some grandmaster political calculation that we won’t see coming for another twenty moves.

To quote Julie Brown from I’m A Blonde, “So What?!” You don’t hear people complaining today that it took the Civil War to force Lincoln to end slavery, do you? Political expediency is just as good a reason to do the right thing as any other.

Welcome back to the family of progressive thinkers, Mr. President. Confidentially, you never made a very convincing rube.