Each week, the Obama administration (which has become indistinguishable from the Obama campaign) becomes more reminiscent of the old children’s story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” with the national media elites playing the members of the king’s fawning court, pretending that the president is not naked, that he is, in fact, resplendent in the best finery, and that his ever more absurd pronouncements are somehow credible. The latest issue is same-sex marriage.
Ever since Vice President Joe Blabbermouth, America’s second biggest national embarrassment, was dispatched to announce that he now favors the radical redefinition of marriage, followed in short order by his boss admitting that his position on the issue also has “evolved,” the political chatter on the left has been ridiculous. It reminds me of the snooty townswomen of River City doing their cheep-cheep-pick-a-little number from “The Music Man.” And it brings to mind the question, why now?
The answer seems obvious to those of us who keep our focus on the one topic that will ultimately define the fall campaign (whether the president likes it or not): the nation’s teetering economy.
As a committed leftist, Barack Obama should be proud of his record. He has done some very profound things in his three-and-a-half years as president. He should be proud of his multi-billion dollar government bailout of the United Auto Workers, his trillion dollar “stimulus package” (which seems to have stimulated nothing other than his friends and campaign bundlers in the nation’s public sector unions and the industry known laughingly as “solar energy”), and, of course, his crowning achievement, Obamacare.
But after all this radical tinkering, Obama cannot and will not run on his record. His promise to “fundamentally transform the United States of America,” which caused mindless, starry-eyed crowds to cheer him on five days before the 2008 election, has now become a haunting threat to the freedoms of many voters who will not be fooled in 2012.
So let’s not kid ourselves, as so many of the nation’s media elites have been doing, that Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage for any reasons other than political ones. There are two reasons he made this calculated decision now (and neither of them have to do with Joe Biden, whom I believe was sent out to do exactly what he did on Meet the Press). First, despite his incessant fundraising, he is insatiably desperate for more campaign money. When a president has no discernable governing leadership skills, and nothing to which he can point as an example of the positive things he has done for his nation’s economy, he must spend all his time campaigning and fundraising. He needs lots of cash with which smear his opponents, and boatloads of it are now sailing into Port Obama from wealthy leftwing Hollywood loons and other radical advocates of homosexual marriage.
The other reason is that this man is desperate to make this election about anything other than a referendum on him and his failed policies, and his gay marriage pronouncement is just the latest attempt by his frenetic reelection team to distract the American people from the real issue of this campaign.
He tried to sidetrack us by telling us that if he had a son, he would look just like Trayvon Martin. He has shamelessly spiked the ball and done his little end zone dance over and over, lest we forget that he ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden. He attempted to force the coverage of contraception and abortion-inducing drugs in health care plans of religious institutions, then invented a phony Republican “war on women” when those opposed to the scheme spoke up in defense of the First Amendment.
Now, apparently, he wants to create a mythical “war on gays.” Immediately after his same-sex marriage announcement, his minions attempted to cook up a half-century old story about mean, nasty, elitist, homophobic Mitt “Snidely Whiplash” Romney allegedly harassing a poor gay kid in high school and cutting off his long hair. Really? Is this the level to which this campaign has been reduced? Is Obama really this small? Do his campaign geniuses really think so little of the intelligence of the American voter that they believe this kind of inanity will sell?
If so, let us hope they are wrong.
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© 2012 by Doug Patton
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Doug Patton describes himself as a recovering political speechwriter who agrees with himself much more often than not. Now working as a freelance writer, his weekly columns of sage political analysis are published the world over by legions of discerning bloggers, courageous webmasters and open-minded newspaper editors. Astute supporters and inane detractors alike are encouraged to e-mail him with their pithy comments at dougpatton@cox.net.
