May 11, 2012

"Why Gay Rights May Be President Obama’s Biggest Legacy."

Don't tell me. Because everything else is so small?

85 comments:

Cincinnatus said...

Probably.

He had to be dragged kicking by Congress into fulfilling his DADT repeal promise.

Greg Toombs said...

Of course he hasn't actually DONE anything about gay rights.

Michael said...

Greg Toombs. Well, at least he. Closed Gitmo.

dreams said...

No, Obamacare I doubt we'll be able repeal it. I see Obama as an evil man.

Revenant said...

His biggest legacy is saying he'll leave the final decision on gay rights to the states?

Yeah, probably.

Once written, twice... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
campy said...

Hey, what's a few wars and a depression compared to GAY RIGHTS?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The history books may remember Obama for doing for gays what Lyndon Johnson did for African Americans: Leading his party across a bridge to an irrevocable position on civil rights.

Roger Stone (gay I presume) begs to differ... excerpt

Once Gay Americans are through celebrating President Barack Obama's "personal" support of Gay marriage equality, they will learn that Obama's "evolution" changes nothing. Obama's new position is a bullshit cop-out.

This comes on the heels of an cynical Obama campaign pirouette where Team Obama trotted out first Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then Vice President "Crazy" Joe Biden to say they support gay marriage and imply that the President would too--after the election.

Now, incredibly, Obama says Gay marriage is a state issue. That's what they used to say about abortion and before that, slavery. Now Obama tells us that gay couples should be able to marry but he doesn't believe they have a right to do so. Obama would leave the question to the states--in other words -the status quo. This is like saying that public schools ought to be integrated but if the people of Mississippi disagree, well he says, "let the states decide"

Once written, twice... said...

Just as Lincoln was imperfect on ending slavery; President Obama will be remembered as a civil rights hero and as someone who improved millions of lives.

5/11/12 6:10 PM

Palladian said...

Just as Lincoln was imperfect on ending slavery; President Obama will be remembered as a civil rights hero and as someone who improved millions of lives.

LOL. Do you need to go change your panties now, Retread?

DADvocate said...

Obama's biggest legacy will be his lousy economy, lack of a realistic workable, preparing for the future energy policy, leaving a huge debt for future generations and other failure. His gay rights legacy will be "Oh, yeah, he once said he supported gay marriage." They will erect a rusted out Subaru in his honor.

Once written, twice... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

Of course he hasn't actually DONE anything about gay rights.

It's BARACK OBAMA! He doesn't have to DO anything! DOING THINGS is for pissants. His job is to feel things, to dream things, to manifest things, to listen impassively and glance into the starry distance.

And for this recent evolution on the issue, us queers should be forever beholden to Obama, to his party, and to their ruinous policies, and we should vote to allow them to continue their disastrous rule for 4 years, 8 years, forever!

Who cares if America is destroyed in the process? Who cares if our most fundamental rights and liberties are further eroded and ceded to an ever-more-powerful State? Who cares about any of this, as long as our Philosopher-King has personally evolved his thinking in favor of our narrow special interest?

edutcher said...

I thought that was the bin Laden hit.

Or was it the GM bailout?

Lem said...

The history books may remember Obama for doing for gays what Lyndon Johnson did for African Americans

Turning them into a permanent underclass?

Jay Retread said...

Just as Lincoln was imperfect on ending slavery; President Obama will be remembered as a civil rights hero and as someone who improved millions of lives.

I wasn't aware being a thrall to an all-powerful government was considered improvement.

Once written, twice... said...

I know the Althouse Hillbillies hate it but President Obama has set the nation on the right course to be on the right side of history; that being freedom.

Michael said...

Jay Retread. Our brave president has stated his opinion on gay marriage. So you and I and Barry all agree. Isnt that nice? He will do nothing but have an opinion. Brave, brave man.

Palladian said...

I know the Althouse Hillbillies hate it but President Obama has set the nation on the right course and on the right side of history; that being freedom.

Yes, freedom! Freedom to have more of our livelihood confiscated! Freedom to have our medical care dictated by government bureaucrats! Freedom to amass trillions more in debt! Freedom to have our lifestyle choices restricted by the State! Freedom to have our businesses and innovations squashed by endless regulation! Freedom to submit to ever-more invasive law enforcement! Freedom to be monitored by ever-more pervasive State surveillance!

But, by fucking God, Obama has evolved in his political thinking about State-regulated same-sex marriage! Who cares if everything else is flushed down the fucking toilet!

Palladian said...

Did everyone see when Chris Althouse Cohen handed Retread's ass to him yesterday?

TWM said...

Blogger Jay Retread said...

"I know the Althouse Hillbillies hate it but President Obama has set the nation on the right course to be on the right side of history; that being freedom."

And it cost him seven points in the polls. Please let him keep setting the right course, pretty please . . .

dreams said...

"But, by fucking God, Obama has evolved in his political thinking about State-regulated same-sex marriage! Who cares if everything else is flushed down the fucking toilet!"

Some people can't see the forest because of the trees.

Palladian said...

I wonder when Obama will "evolve" to more of Dick Cheney's policy positions?

Known Unknown said...

And completely overshadowed by a mountain of rising debt, a jobless 'recovery' and reams of regulation.

edutcher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...

Jay Retread said...
Just as Lincoln was imperfect on ending slavery; President Obama will be remembered as a civil rights hero and as someone who improved millions of lives.

Lincoln had way more than an opinion on things. Plus Lincoln could write and orate without a teleprompter.

But you're correct that Obama is a hero to some but not to most. He needs to focus now more on what everybody cares about, rather than just the next campain contribution.

But if we must have Lincoln from Obama, could we at least have a bit of that "all of the people some of time" for a change?*

Please?
__________
*Not that we want to be fooled.

edutcher said...

Jay Retread said...

I know the Althouse Hillbillies hate it but President Obama has set the nation on the right course to be on the right side of history; that being freedom.

Because nothing says freedom like ever-increasing round-the-clock surveillance and burdensome taxation.

Carol said...

Why are Democrats so obsessed with social issues.

caseym54 said...

I thought PEACE would be his greatest legacy. That's usually the case when you get a Nobel Peace Prize.

ricpic said...

Obama's legacy will be jackbooted homos goose stepping to a hip hop beat down a Broadway lined with mullahs to a Times Square filled with bitter clingers, Fundamentalist Christians and Orthodox Jews, who will be put to the torch and burnt to death as The One orgasms with Reggie in a hovering Harvard helicopter above.

campy said...

I thought PEACE would be his greatest legacy. That's usually the case when you get a Nobel Peace Prize.

Hey, anybody can earn a NPP by contributing to Peace. Only a really special individual can get one while slaughtering poor colored folks by the thousands.

Once written, twice... said...

Ann, your blog is a pretty ugly place.

Palladian said...

Ann, your blog is a pretty ugly place.

It certainly is when you're around.

chickelit said...

Ricpic, who's Reggie?

chickelit said...

Jay Retread said...
Ann, your blog is a pretty ugly place.

You just can't stomach objective indicia.

Once written, twice... said...

I know Palladian, rigid ideological conformity must be maintained at Althouse.

Paddy O said...

So, has everyone just entirely given up on Obamacare?

Or are the gays that much more important than the perception that millions of poor Americans get health coverage?

Rabel said...

In the article Rauch wrote:

"And now, after years of equivocating, Obama has reversed himself on same-sex marriage, the most important and controversial gay-rights issue of our time. There is nothing remotely ambiguous or cynical about that."

Nope, not remotely. Not a bit.
Yeah, that's the ticket.

Agree or disagree with gay marriage, how do you write that if you're not on the man's payroll.

chickelit said...

Palladian said...
Did everyone see when Chris Althouse Cohen handed Retread's ass to him yesterday?

Saw that! Did retread ever respond?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

educher @ 6:35 PM

I was quoting the story the post linked to.

I didn't say anything in that comment.

All I did was copy/paste diametrically opposed viewpoints.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

When i put things in Italics.. it is meant to convey that they are not my words.

chickelit said...

Agree or disagree with gay marriage, how do you write that if you're not on the man's payroll.

Rauch means smoke in German. Spiegel translates as mirror.

That's how it's done.

wyo sis said...

Obama's "fierce advocacy" for gay issues is much less fierce than his advocacy for his own reelection.

TWM said...

"Why are Democrats so obsessed with social issues."

Two reasons. One, arguing substantive issues like the economy,defense, and national security would make them run on their records which we all know suck. And secondly, social issues require victims - a few real, but most simply created - and they love playing victim politics.

To quote Richard Gere in "An Officer and a Gentleman," they got no place else to go.

hombre said...

"Ann, your blog is a pretty ugly place."

You drop in with a bunch of nonsensical, conclusory allegations about the Obamessiah, e.g., comparing him to Lincoln, and you expect what, nosegays??

hombre said...

Obama's "biggest" legacy will be furthering destabilzation of the Middle East and, perhaps, the destruction of Israel.

Palladian said...

I know Palladian, rigid ideological conformity must be maintained at Althouse.

Lol. What ideological conformity? I know you're not the sharpest crayon in the bin, but have you actually ever read the comments here?

No, of course you haven't, because you're just an identity-shifting troll that has some weird, smelly personal obsession with Ann Althouse.

In case anyone besides our dull periwinkle-colored Crayola, Jay Retread, hasn't noticed, I disagree with almost everyone who comments here at one time or another, and I think that's pretty average for most of the other neurally-functional commenters as well.

And, chickenlittle, of course Retread didn't respond! He was too busy holding on to his ass, which was handed to him by Chris Althouse Cohen.

Brian Brown said...

ay Retread said...

Just as Lincoln was imperfect on ending slavery;


Yes!

I mean, Lincoln like totally left the slavery issue up to the states!

What a great comparison!!!!!

Idiot.

Tim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SukieTawdry said...

He "came out" and said that he personally, along with his wife and apparently his daughters (who, he says, should be off limits in the media unless of course it's he himself exploiting them) thinks gay people should be able to get married. Then he said whether or not they can should be left up to the states. That's all. It changes nothing. In fact, he's ostensibly told gay marriage proponents they should expect no help from him at the federal level (beyond declining to support DOMA). This is the stuff of legacies??

KCFleming said...

I love the smell of a Palladian beat-down in the morning.

Tim said...

"Just as Lincoln was imperfect on ending slavery; President Obama will be remembered as a civil rights hero and as someone who improved millions of lives."

Retread felches an illusion.

But the $1 trillion increase in the national debt is no illusion; the least qualified man ever elected president will be remembered as a profligate spender who cannibalized America's future with bone-crushing, unsustainable debt mounting at $1 trillion per annum.

Bud Light Presents: Real Men of Genius
(real men of genius)
Today we salute you, Mr. Add a Trillion to the Debt Each Year.
(Mr. Add a Trillion to the Debt Each Year)
Any politician can spend money that isn't his, but it takes real talent to add a trillion to the debt each year.
(Easy Money!)
Lecturing the nation while your wife travels overseas on multimillion dollar vacations, you tirelessly talk about people taking advantage of wealth they didn't earn.
(Keep on movin')
Balanced budget? You don't need no stinking balanced budget.
(No!)
And even though you've never had a real job, you lecture corporate CEO's on how to create jobs.
(Oh, so smart!)
So crack open an ice-cold Bud Light, debt building guy, because every place you go to, you're the real Big Spender.
(Mr. Add a Trillion to the Debt Each Year)

Anonymous said...

After how he finessed the skip Gates and Trayvon Martin situations, I thought race relations would be his true legacy.

Penny said...

According to the author, Rauch, "He has crossed the bridge from Selma."

Um, not really. More like the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan.

An announcement from the Selma bridge would have been ever so much BOLDER.

Would have taken some extra big Obama BALLS to do that in an election year.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Are we witnessing a healthy sense of realism? (as Joan Didion speculated Obama would welcome) or the manifestation of a partisanship so endemic that people seem willing to patronise Obama to ever more ridiculous extents?

I mean.. are all these people praising Obama for his evolution willing to concede that all that expectation of 2008 boils down to the continuing education of an already privilegely educated Obama?.. on their dime no less.

Fernandinande said...

Another "Mr. Obama sure is Wonderful!"

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Obamas personal growth..

Talk about dick jokes.

Cincinnatus said...

Jay Retread said...

I know the Althouse Hillbillies hate it but President Obama has set the nation on the right course to be on the right side of history; that being freedom.


Just as with the DADT repeal, Obama has done nothing but talk. Dragging one's feet on action is not setting a course, its not leading except from behind.

Indeed, the contrast with Clinton's attempt to repeal the ban on homosexuals serving in the military is instructive. Clinton made his attempt immediately upon entering office. His move showed some ineptness in failing to get the military on board and failing to get the Congress to support him, but he engaged in actual action. Obama? Nothing. It was more than a year later that the Congress started to push him on the issue and the White House resisted a clear repeal, insisting on a delayed implementation.

And that's what Obama's "legacy" will be, leadership from the rear echelon.

Unknown said...

"everything else is so small."

Yes, Obama has not done anything big.

Universal health care? Big deal
Repealing DADT? Whatever
Saving GM and Chrysler? Small beans
Major financial regulatory reform? Who cares
Ordered the raid that killed Bin Laden? Boring
Passed a new Salt treaty? Ho hum

Seriously, if you want to make the argument that Obama has not done the right things, make it. I disagree, but at least such an argument would represent some connection to reality.

But to say his legacy is small? Only someone that does not understand what big and small are could think that.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Flip flop as legacy..

Can it get worse?

ricpic said...

chick -- Reggie is Reggie Love, Barry's, um...body man.

Palladian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

I agree with Unknown, there's nothing small about how Obama has fucked up this country.

He and his party took a nation in trouble and helped push it right over the precipice into insolvency and incipient totalitarianism. That's a big fucking deal.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Only someone that does not understand what big and small are could think that.

The only thing big Obama has done is spend.

Here is NPR's take NPR.. not FOX.

It's not often that one gets to hear a call for "responsible" fiscal stewardship from someone whose deficit spending is outpacing President Bush's by more than $1 trillion a year — yet that's apparently what we'll get to hear tonight. But President Obama's actions tell another, far clearer, story about his commitment to deficit reduction.

I anticipated a Bush counter..

Unknown said...

He could have a bigger gay legacy if he admitted he was bisexual.

Cincinnatus said...

Yes, Obama has not done anything big.

Universal health care? Big deal False claim. There is no "universal health care" - Obamacare does not cover everyone

Repealing DADT? Whatever As mentioned, Congress forced his hand against his resistance.

Saving GM and Chrysler? Small beans Chrysler was sold to Fiat. GM still isn't on solid ground. That's saved?

Major financial regulatory reform? Who cares Banks still "too big to fail" exist. Jon Corzine still free. What reform?

Ordered the raid that killed Bin Laden? Boring After Bush set up the intel work to find him. And with a memo absolving him of responsibility for failure. Another failure of leadership. Taking credit for others' work and blowing operational security of the mission.

Passed a new Salt treaty? Ho hum Asking the Russians to give him slack until after the election when he can give them treats w/o political cost, great leadership there too.

Penny said...

The problem with American Presidents is that they ALL have "big feet".

Well that, plus they're all too narcissistic to ask if you had as much "fun" as they did.

Carnifex said...

OMG!! Man I knew I had heard of Reggie Love before...it took along time but I finally remembered!! Love played basketball for the Duke Blue Devils back in the day. A swirl of rumors came out of Durham about Love being teabagged at a frat party were he had gotten drunk, and passed out. Then, more than rumors, pictures appeared. Denials were issued, photoshop was claimed, but, My God! No one believed them!

And now he's Zero's "Body Man"?

Maybe Zero has more "skin" in this game than we're crediting him for!

If this turns out to be not only the second(because Clinton was first) black president, who is half white, that spends America into insolvency, AND is queer!!! Jay Retread may be right! This WOULD be historic. And hysterical.

Brian Brown said...

Universal health care? Big deal

The fact that you believe that what was passed by Congress is universal health care tells us all we need to know about you.

DADvocate said...

You guys need to take it easy on Retread. Consider the frame of reference he has for freedom:
Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Brian Brown said...

Ordered the raid that killed Bin Laden?

Obama did no such thing.

Saving GM and Chrysler?

Chrysler was sold to a foreign company and GM has fewer employees & dealerships than when Obama was sworn in. And, to top it off, the US treasury stands to lose $25 billion, at a minimum, from "saving" GM.

Passed a new Salt treaty?

The President doesn't "pass" treaties.

You can stop making an utter fool of yourself at any time.

Methadras said...

Jay Retread said...

Just as Lincoln was imperfect on ending slavery; President Obama will be remembered as a civil rights hero and as someone who improved millions of lives.


How? Because he simply uttered the words? Preposterous.

Meade said...

"Because everything else is so small?"

Well, yes, there was that small fly. But it was an accomplishment - "Got the sucker".

Cedarford said...

dreams said...
No, Obamacare I doubt we'll be able repeal it
=====================
1. First, SCOTUS may well find Obamacare unConstitutional.
2. Second, if Romney is elected, on Day 1 he will sign an executive order granting waivers to any State from being forced into Obamacare. (Though if you live in Dem-controlled States, your State may stick you with it.
3. Keep in mind that repeal may give way to a new approach that replaces the horrifically expensive and flawed US healthcare system with a cost-cutting system to get our costs more in line with what competitor nations like Germany and France pay.

Ralph L said...

Clinton made his attempt immediately upon entering office
Not the way it happened. The gay lobby publicly demanded he act immediately after the inauguration with a presidential order. Sam Nunn then ran rings around Clinton after the rest of the country heard about it. DADT was later passed and signed as a face-saving "compromise."

Clinton was even more feckless than Obama, all talk and no action. He was just lucky that the economy was growing well and Newt was so easy to demonize.

Cedarford said...

Ordered the raid that killed Bin Laden.
===============
Nixon ordered the Apollo missions. Each far more visible and with greater portent if something went wrong, than the bin Laden raid.

Unlike Obama, Nixon had the brains and humility not to try and make himself "THE" man ---- realizing that any other American had they been President would have made the same call. And that he, Richard Nixon was in fact just a small cog in the larger team that did it.

And in comments, Nixon had the grace and again, the humility, to spread praise far and wide, and include key Democrats in Congress that brought funding and support to NASA, and credit to both JFK and LBJ for their instrumental roles.

Obama looks small compared to Nixon.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

But it was an accomplishment..

Seth Brundle: It wants to... turn me into something else. That's not too terrible is it? Most people would give anything to be turned into something else.
Ronnie: Turned into what?
Seth Brundle: Whaddaya think? A fly. Am I becoming a hundred-and-eighty-five-pound fly? No, I'm becoming something that never existed before. I'm becoming... Brundlefly. Don't you think that's worth a Nobel Prize or two?

Revenant said...

Seriously, if you want to make the argument that Obama has not done the right things, make it. I disagree, but at least such an argument would represent some connection to reality.

There isn't a thing on your list anyone will care about or remember a generation from now.

What they will remember about him -- and Bush -- is what they did to dramatically increase the country's debt burden. THAT is his major accomplishment.

Phil 314 said...

Will he have a guest appearance on Glee now?

Anonymous said...

He will be remembered for creating such crisis, division and animosity in the country that a multi-year period of unrest and violence just short of actual civil war will ensue. This will culminate in a changed America in which current emboldened leftist social agitators and subversives are thoroughly discredited, repressed or driven out. It will not be a pretty process but it will be peaceful when it's over. Peace will seem more important to the citizenry than anything else at that point even if bought at a price. There will be nary a rainbow flag flying in the United States, no affirmative action, strict regulation of financial markets, a booming petroleum economy, no military adventures other than extremely punitive short excursions when the true national security is involved and people will spit after saying such discredited names from history as Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank. Virtually all law schools will be shuttered as we will need and tolerate fewer attorneys. That wasted intellectual capital will be redirected to constructive rather than destructive purposes, WalMart greeters for example. The vast majority of Americans will like the newly improved nation, others won't but they'll keep it to themselves and not crack wise until such sentiments die out naturally. USA, USA!

Palladian said...

The vast majority of Americans will like the newly improved nation, others won't but they'll keep it to themselves and not crack wise until such sentiments die out naturally. USA, USA!

Hopefully we can drive "gutless" and its ilk out of America before they actually try to manifest their wet dream of a neo-Kristallnacht.

Opposing Obama and Statism doesn't mean we have to tolerate fascism, as anyone with a functioning neocortex already knows.

Nice bit of "ass end of thread" trolling though, gutless!

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Ultimately, gay marriage is very important to a few people and fairly trivial to everyone else.

It doesn't determine who most people vote for. Conservatives who really care vote Republican anyway. Ditto with liberals.

It's not even a wedge issue. Despite 30 states voting for constitutional amendments banning gay marriage a large number of those states will cast their electoral votes for Obama in November.

People have their opinions, but except for a vocal minority they aren't strong opinions, or at least not strong enough to affect voting for candidates. I think that bothers a lot of people for whom gay marriage is a big deal, but most Americans really don't seem to care much one way or the other. If you ask them to vote on it, they will, but other than that there's a lot of indifference.

As for Obama's legacy, he'll be remembered for being the first Black President. Other than that, there's the killing of OBL, the end of the war in Iraq, the Afghanistan mess, and the health care plan, however that turns out. If the economy recovers soon he'll get credit. If not, he'll get the blame. The rest won't be remembered for very long.

Roger J. said...

Damn--Palladian was on fire last nite--good job, sir

Anonymous said...

Palladian sez, "Hopefully we can drive "gutless" and its ilk out of America before they actually try to manifest their wet dream of a neo-Kristallnacht." Sounds a bit like what I wrote absent the irony. Easy, Big Fellow. How about an anger management class?

damikesc said...

Just as Lincoln was imperfect on ending slavery; President Obama will be remembered as a civil rights hero and as someone who improved millions of lives.

...by doing nothing. Lincoln only had to undergo a bloody, bloody war. Obama gave an interview where he admitted to lying for years.

Otherwise, yes, same thing. He came over to the Dick Cheney position. Viva la courage.

I know the Althouse Hillbillies hate it but President Obama has set the nation on the right course to be on the right side of history; that being freedom.

Yup. The government can now kill citizens with no due process. The government ignores your privacy. The TSA has become markedly more draconian which Obama clearly approves of. He spends trillions we do not have that will have to paid back by my children and their children.

But, hey, Obama thinks gays should marry. Lovely.

cubanbob said...

Jay Retread said...
Just as Lincoln was imperfect on ending slavery; President Obama will be remembered as a civil rights hero and as someone who improved millions of lives.

5/11/12 6:10 PM

5/11/12 6:13 PM

Only because Biden outed him.

Dave said...

If gay marraige can be framed as a civil rights issue and put into place by the courts as an equal protection issue, why can't polygamy also be framed as a civil rights issue under the same precedent. Then certain sects of Mormons and Muslims would be able to practice marraige as defined under their cultures.