NYC Letter: Say What? Our Gay President

Day 1,207 of CHOPE

Our Gay President Edition

The president recently weighed in on marriage and you know he said his views were evolving on marriage. Call me cynical, but I wasn’t sure his views on marriage could get any gayer.

Rand Paul (R-KY),
inviting liberal lectures on civility
IOWA FAITH AND FREEDOM COALITION
12th Annual Spring Kickoff Event
WAUKEE, Iowa May 11, 2012 (ABC News)

FOR REAL. NEWSWEEK.
Lousy Photoshop Theirs, Not Ours

Mr. Paul is rebuked in solemn tones invoking respect and dignity. Newsweek editor Tina Brown makes the same joke and is celebrated.

TINA BROWN
EXPLAINS OBAMA
'GAYLO'

May 14, 2012 (Politico) - SIREN: President Barack Obama isn't actually gay.

But now that Tina Brown, Newsweek editor and grand dame of Manhattan publishing, has adorned him with the rainbow-colored "gaylo" and ordained him America's "first gay president", it hardly seems to matter. Ms. Brown via email:

If President Clinton was the ‘first black president’ then Obama earns every stripe in that 'gaylo' with last week’s gay marriage proclamation. ... Newsweek’s cover pays tribute to his newly ordained place in history.

It seems there are no authentic black* or gay presidential firsts in the minority sweeps.

[Pause.] Maybe you too are caught up in the hagiographic moment, awash in the hagiographic drool, sincerely admiring Mr. Obama's lead-from-behind** moxie. Or maybe you are just trying to boost your low-circulation magazine's newsstand sales with a stupid sensationalized cover.

Newsweek is also paying tribute to newsstand sales, of course. Brown's tenure at the helm of Newsweek has seen a string of controversial covers. ... Newsweek says newsstand sales have increased 30 percent, so maybe they're doing something right.

Mr. Obama's "gaylo" may sell magazines, but it may not buy votes. Let's begin on the day after Mr. Obama acquired his "gaylo".

BLACK VOTERS IN NC
SUPPORTED AMENDMENT ONE BY 2-1 MARGIN
By Ed Morrissey

BLOG May 10, 2012 (Hot Air) - If the President expects to get a boost at the ballot box over his flip-flop on same-sex marriage, the composition of North Carolina’s vote on Tuesday might indicate a big problem in his strategy. Obama came out publicly against Amendment One, which shifted the state’s ban on same-sex marriage from statute to constitutional amendment, and opponents railed against the loss as a victory for bigotry. However, that message might not sell well in the Tarheel State or in other swing states when black voters supported the constitutional ban by a 2-1 margin.

The DNC will be holding its gay-marriage-friendly convention in gay-marriage-unfriendly Charlotte, NC this September. Or -- maybe not.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN SOUTHERN BAPTIST
LEADER REBUKES OBAMA

May 10, 2012 (Baptist Standard) - [Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington] who led the Southern Baptist Convention to adopt a resolution in 2009 applauding the election of Barack Obama as America’s first African-American president, termed the president’s May 9 endorsement of same-sex marriage a betrayal of the black church and an attack on the Christian faith.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCH LEADERS
CONDEMN OBAMA FOR GAY MARRIAGE SUPPORT
BALTIMORE May 13, 2012 (WJZ)

VULNERABLE DEMOCRATIC SENATORS BALK
AT OBAMA'S GAY MARRIAGE ENDORSEMENT

May 12, 2012 (The Hill) - Senate Democrats facing difficult reelections are breaking with President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage, a sign the issue is politically dangerous in battleground states. Sens. Jon Tester (MN) and Claire McCaskill (MO), the two most vulnerable Democratic senators, have declined to endorse Obama’s call for the legalization of gay marriage.

Sens. Joe Manchin (WV), Bob Casey (PA) and Bill Nelson (FL), Democrats who have easier races but in states that could become more competitive by November, have also backed away from Obama’s stance. They all represent states with constitutional amendments or laws banning same-sex marriage.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) predicted Thursday the Democratic Party would adopt a pro-gay marriage plank in its platform.

Brilliant Harry Reid! Take gay marriage, an issue socially conservative Obama voters -- apparently they exist -- will want to forget, will probably have forgotten come September, and remind them just before the election! It-it's brilliant!

ONE IN FOUR
LESS LIKELY
TO BACK OBAMA OVER
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
POLL May 14, 2012 (CBS News)

Mr. Obama's "gaylo" may not buy him any votes he didn't already have, may lose him votes he had, and may very well depress the black vote that, until last Wednesday, he had the luxury of taking for granted. On the bright side it will probably sell a lot of campaign "gaylo" swag.

CHOPE.

America's first non-gay gay president.

------------------------------------
* Bill Clinton was, of course, our first "black" president. Or so said black apologist, Toni Morrison, sentimentalizing racism, diminishing truth, and trashing white Republicans for her president:

AAfrican-American men seemed to understand it right away. Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President’s body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and body-searched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke.

** From behind Joe "Blabbermouth" Biden! The lowest form of moxie known to politics.

Posted by Damian at May 15, 2012 04:45 PM