I don't know about you, but two thoughts occurred to me last week when President Obama announced that he'd finally evolved his position all the way on same sex marriage.
The first was, Huh, I'm surprised he didn't wait until after the election. There couldn't have been more than two dozen people in the entire country that didn't expect Obama to eventually change his mind to the real position he's had all along. In that sense, the only real surprise about the decision was that he made it a few months early.
The second thought I had was, If he's going this far out on a limb before the election, imagine what he'll do after.
And that's the single best argument there is for Mitt Romney. Barack Obama is so concerned with being a historical, transformational president that he wrecked his party during his first term so that he could pass a healthcare law that would be as immutable as it was unpopular. Now he's staking out ground as the first president to want to change 5,000 years of Judeo-Christian tradition on the nature of the family.
What could he possibly do for an encore—when he not only feels the need to top himself, but also no longer worries about any electoral accountability?
On the one hand, you could make a fun parlor game out of this question. Barack Obama's Second Term: A $50/hour minimum wage! Creation of the Department of Peace! A 90 percent top marginal tax rate! (Email me your suggestions and I'll run them in next week's Newsletter.)
But on the other hand, it's not all that funny. Because if this president has taught us anything, it's that he views himself as a world-historical figure. And he's imposed quite enough history on us already.
| LOOKING BACK |
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| "With both contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination evading the gun control issue as if it were sniper fire, you couldn't blame gun control advocates for feeling bitter. Yet Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence—the pro-gun control counterweight to the National Rifle Association—says Obama and Clinton are 'coming fairly close to delivering the message we'd like.' On licensing and registering guns, Helmke says, they are 'being realistic' in recognizing 'there's no support for pushing that forward at this stage.' His thoughts on the candidates' ducking questions on the D.C. gun ban? 'They're politicians, and most politicians on tough calls do not answer.'" |
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