According to former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod’s new book, President Barack Obama misled on his gay marriage position in the 2008 election, claiming to be against the change when he in fact fully favored it.
According to Believer: My Forty Years in Politics, Obama had long been in favor of same-sex marriage, but struggled to find a way to articulate the then-unpopular stance. In the 2008 race aides worried it would cost him key support in African-American communities.
“Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church,” Axelrod wrote, per a copy of the text obtained by TIME’s Zeke Miller. “As he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a ‘sacred union.’”
Obama told pastor Rick Warren in 2008 that he believed marriage was between a man and woman, but according to Axelrod he was saying the opposite behind closed doors. “Having prided himself on forthrightness, though, Obama never felt comfortable with his compromise and, no doubt, compromised position,” Axelrod wrote. “He routinely stumbled over the question when it came up in debates or interviews.”
More at Mediaite
This is of no particular surprise. One thing I myself noticed was about Obama’s original refusal to wear the flag lapel pen, stating that does not make one patriotic. This was a useful stance to have while he tried to curry favor among leftists during the primaries; he who stomps the flag the hardest garners the most left wing support. However, note that once the general campaign commenced, when it was important to try and appeal to moderate Democrats, out comes the lapel pin. Obama’s statement remained true though; simply wearing the flag pin does not make one patriotic… not to America, anyway.
He has set the precedent for American children and politicians; lying is ok if you have a good purpose in mind.
What a noble man.