Frankly I agree. Everyone knows my positions on these issues, I never ran away from them but people keep trying to make the issue about me. You're not going to change my mind people.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Obama announces support for same-sex marriage
- Thread starter Cheebo
- Start date
- Status
Frankly I agree. Everyone knows my positions on these issues, I never ran away from them but people keep trying to make the issue about me. You're not going to change my mind people.
Gaborn supports both Paul and Johnson. I mean, it's fine, it just makes his criticism of Obama weirdly selective.
I'd say it's the best possible time to do it. Everything is so rigidly partisan that his best hope is to get young people out to vote again. He's not going to get the same amount of support from people outside his party that he did 4 years ago.
No, that's not right. In 2008, Pres. Obama told an interviewer that he didn't support a constitutional ban on marriage between gays or lesbians because it wasn't a federal issue. He felt marriage was a matter for the states.
If people want to proudly display the fact that they are in a homosexual marriage, that should be their choice and not imposed upon them by law. Going back to the Star of David example, if Jews choose to proudly wear symbols of their religion, good for them. It was, however, not right for Nazis to force them to wear the star for easy identification.
As you said, this is a gradual process and granting homosexual couples the same right to marry that heterosexual couples have will not change bigots' minds overnight. But it is a good step towards eventual tolerance and acceptance, and makes it more difficult for people to openly discriminate, as it should be.
Femmeworth
Banned
Someone should make a Gaborn megathread and get it over with. /somewhat serious
My last post (at least for a while) in this thread just to clarify this point. I support Paul more generally because he is a very consistent and committed hardcore libertarian (though I'm not wild about the gold standard or a couple of his other issues). Gary Johnson is also a libertarian but considerably less of an absolutist. I do like both, though Johnson is better for gay rights than Paul and Paul is slightly more explicitly better on the drug war.
Baconsammy
Banned
4 years too late. Thanks prez.
It's ridiculous that the current GOP wouldn't take Gary Johnson seriously as a candidate. I would have given my left leg for an Obama - Johnson general election.
Ok now THIS I forgot about.
Barr was one of the most anti-gay members of congress, he was the father of the DOMA. Yet when he changes his views for purely political reasons in an election Gaborn backed him 100% I remember Gaborn even defended his support of Barr in saying he doesn't care what their past political positions were, just what they stand for now and will support in office!
Yet he gives Obama the complete opposite treatment.
CoffeeJanitor
Member
Let's all lose our minds over one guy's opinion
Conciliator
Banned
Not news to me but that's good. One more baby step on the (hopefully) accelerating path towards national acceptance.
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
you hear that obama? it's too late, you should recant your position, it's over for gay rights.
if he was pro gay marriage pre 2008 he probably wouldnt have gotten elected.
if he was pro immediately after the election he would have been labeled a deceptive flip flopper.
taking this stance now is bold and meaningful yet refrains from being election suicide as it might have been in 08
Which guy - Obama or a GAFers?
My own opinion on this - I find it somewhat sad that it took an especially loquacious Biden to quickly 'evolve' Obama's position to the painfully nuanced line he drew today. He should've done this sooner, and should have reasoned it on its own merits rather than having it come as a PR move in response to Biden and Duncan. That's not emblematic of what we want our leaders to be at all.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
A lot of the African American community still is, and many are blind to the irony.
Conciliator
Banned
That's actually not a bad idea. Gaborn is everywhere and I find him supporting causes that I support(and vice versa) basically 100% of the time. Don't care how he identifies himself, and to be flat out frank I've hit my max on people trying to convince me that Ron Paul is legit(it was 122, I counted; I'm done now. I guess that's close-minded but I can only give so much of my life to people who are really into Ron Paul trying to hype me up and double-speaking around the questionable/offensive stuff and being reallyreallyunwaveringly confident about economic issues that seem complex and unclear to me), but it would be interesting to just have him spell out his life philosophy. I say do it mang.
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
ANSWER FOR YOUR CRIMES GABORN
CoffeeJanitor
Member
Gaborn
Sho_Nuff82
Member
How could this be construed as inconsistent with Obama's stance on DODT? A policy that John McCain, his last ejection opponent, supported to the bitter end?
iamshadowlark
Banned
wow
Particle Physicist
between a quark and a baryon
Wait, do you really think that Obama was forced to do this because of Biden, rather than Biden was sent out to make that statement in order to warm the waters to Obama's final announcement?
Pollux
Member
I was just talking to my buddy about this. The irony kills me.
Flying_Phoenix
Banned
Why are people so obsessed with having Gaborn eat crow?
The Huffington Post article mentions sources saying Obama planned to announce, just not this soon. Biden's remarks forced his hand.
IpsoFacto
Member
As many have almost certainly mentioned this here, but I guess it's worth saying it again... It reeks of desperation when you're the Leader of the Free World and you just happen to change your stance on marriage... in an election year.
Barack Obama never means what he says, and never says what he means. This much would be obvious to the casual observer.
Barack Obama never means what he says, and never says what he means. This much would be obvious to the casual observer.
Particle Physicist
between a quark and a baryon
As many have almost certainly mentioned here, but I guess it's worth saying again, it's really great for a president to make this move before an election because of its potential political toxicity.
Welcome to Politics. if you think there's someone different out there, you're crazy. People of all kinds do the same type of thing in real life. Life is about calculations, get over it.
Ya... no.
It reeks of sound moral foundations and a strong stance for non-discrimination.
You reek of desperation.
la flama blanca
Banned
1 glass of tears please.
From what I've read and heard separately on NPR, Biden's remarks weren't at the behest of the administration, who appeared to have been taken back by it. I'm sure they had their own timeline when Obama's 'evolution' would arrive in the campaign.
But take a step back for a moment - why would this administration choose to or need Biden to test the waters on an issue like this? Why choose to make it so soon after the NC vote and open yourself up to charges that a more forceful announcement and subsequent WH push could've changed the outcome of that vote?
Because "LOL BIDEN" might as well be their 2012 Campaign slogan?
I'm not sure why it reeks of desperation when he has a decent lead in the polls right now. Doing something that might shake that up is the opposite of desperation.
Baconsammy
Banned
There's nothing bold about doing something when it's safe. Good that he did it, but it's 4 years late. He would have still won in 2008 because the people this statement turned off today were NEVER going to vote for him then or now.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
He promised during his campaign that he would repeal DADT. It took 3 years, but it happened. Discuss.
It's not safe though.
Not when you have 32 states rejecting gay marriage, and you say you support gay marriage, but you still leave it up to the states.
Souldriver
Member
Because he's not an obvious troll you can dismiss. He's active in every political thread, and likes to participate in discussions. It makes people think/hope that he'd be receptive to being pointed out his inconsistency and double standards.
But yes, let's drop the Gaborn thing. This thread has too much of it.
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
from what im hearing it's a 50/50 issue with the US public. it's never safe to fully cement yourself on one side of a 50/50 issue. moreover, his biggest supporters are pro gay marriage and he doesnt need to win them over.
might the decision have some pull in getting votes with independents? yes, but it's still a huge gamble
Al-ibn Kermit
Junior Member
It won't get him any new voters at all. Turning it into a campaign issue just forces the GOP to react with vitriol and scare the independent voters from voting for any of the conservative candidates. This is perhaps not something you noticed.
It's a smart thing to turn into an issue right now because it highlights the problems with his opponents without directly slinging any mud.
- Status