Last Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden made some waves when he sort of went against the White House’s official position on same-sex marriage. Biden said he was “absolutely comfortable” with gay marriage, but President Barack Obama has stopped short of any such declaration.
On Tuesday’s “The O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer explained that Obama is only hinting at his support for same-sex marriage
“I’m not sure that the Biden remark was planned — with Biden you never know,” Krauthammer said. “I mean, he is a loose cannon. He can go off at any time. So, I wouldn’t ascribe it to a strategy. However, it’s very clear what the administration is doing. They are telling the American people with a wink and a nod that, of course, we are going to support gay marriage.”
Krauthammer then drew a parallel between Obama’s pledge to outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev back in March about post election “flexibility” and the White House’s winks and nods at the gay community-
“A president announces ‘I’m evolving on the issue,’” Krauthammer said. “You already get high officials in his government saying they are in favor of it. You think Obama is going to announce after Election Day my evolution stopped short of Arne Duncan and Joe Biden? Of course not. Everybody understands that after Election Day he’ll say he’s in favor and it’ll be a done deal. “
He said he doubted Obama’s support for gay marriage would hurt the president’s standing among African-American voters. And he said he also doubted it would sway the Hispanic-American vote, which he said would hinge on immigration policy, but Krauthammer still summed up Obama’s current position on gay marriage as a “dodge operation.”
“As I say, there is no upside for him to announce himself right now on this,” he said. “Those people who support gay marriage know where he is going. All they have to do is wait until after November 6. And those who oppose it he will say, ‘You know, I haven’t changed my position. I am still evolving.’ This is a dodge operation and it will work.”