President Gutsy Call: Okay With Giving Campaign Speeches in Afghanistan; Too Craven To Give Them In North Carolina

NC is voting on an anti-gay-marriage referendum today. As this causes some complications for the GCMOTUS (Gutsy Call Maker of the United States), he's chickening out.

President Barack Obama was scheduled, albeit briefly, to visit North Carolina on Election Day to make an speech in Asheville about the economy.

But the White House sent the notice Wednesday last week but reversed course about five hours later, saying the trip wasn’t taking place, according to a North Carolina congressional office notified about the trip. The false alarm isn’t unprecedented — but the fact the White House even considered visiting the state on primary election day is interesting.

This is a big old sticky wicket for Obama. The press corps is openly laughing at Jay Carney's absurd insistence that Obama is still "evolving," and doesn't know if he'll endorse gay marriage... after the election.

Hey, he needs some "space" on this issue. He'll have more flexibility after the elections, you know.

Ed Rendell says he should just "man up" and admit what's obvious to everyone.

This is some of that "corrosive cynicism" Bill Keller was just talking about, wasn't he? When people have a secret agenda but won't inform the public of it?

As Jake Tapper asked Jay Carney: If this is Obama's position, and it sure seems to be, then shouldn't the public know this so they can make an informed choice in the voting booth?

Is it "transparent, honest, accountable government" when the head of the Executive lies about his position and plans, keeping them secret from the public he asks to install him in the presidency for another four years?

Is that America?

Or is that more of a Pakistani thing?

The cynical semantic game here is that the President refuses to say what his belief is; Carney and his flacks keep saying the policy "is as it was," differentiating that from belief.

Shouldn't beliefs accord with policy, and vice versa? If his belief goes one way, doesn't that mean his policy will eventually shift to agree with it?

It's notable that Carney won't even say what Obama's "policy" is -- he offers the evasion "it is as it was," a formulation constructed specifically to consist of all vague pronouns. He doesn't even permit the words "Obama champions traditional marriage and rejects gay marriage" to pass his lips.

That's how hateful this "policy" is in the Obama White House -- they won't even speak it aloud. Preferring to just call it "it."

posted by Ace at 01:59 PM

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