Gibbs Brushes Aside Prop 8 Question

05-27-2009

If you're gay or lesbian, don't you have to be pretty ticked at The White House? You're thinking you have a "fierce advocate" on your side and yet this White House is leaving the impression in the GLBT community that they simply do not want to engage pubicly on these issues.

Did you see WH Spokesman Robert Gibbs blow off the Prop 8 question the other day? Watch it here.

Look, nobody is saying that President Obama doesn't believe strongly in GLBT rights or that his staff is working behind the scenes on this but where's the "shout out" in public? To use a popular phrase, it seems like they're "in the closet" on this.

To use an analogy for a moment, this would be like President Bush giving the cold shoulder to Evangelicals on the Federal Marriage Amendment. The Bush administration knew at the time that they didn't have anywhere close to the votes in the Senate to pass FMA. They knew it was not a politically winning hand so why bother spending political capital on it in public.

As for this White House, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that spending political capital by pushing gay and lesbian issues in public isn't going to help the centrist image Obama is trying to maintain. Maybe even more to the point, let's face it. GLBT issues are toxic so why get embroiled in Don't Ask Don't Tell (like Clinton) or delve into the Prop 8 controversy. There is really no political upside. But still, you would think The White House would have a little more to say on Prop 8 rather than just deflecting and moving on.

 

 

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