Newsweek has provided a magazine cover that leaves one speechless. Not because of its amazing photography, nor for its deep intellectual insight. But rather because, in its attempt to praise President Obama for his coming out in favor of gay marriage, Newsweek has managed potentially to insult the President, to create campaign fodder that will haunt him until Election Day, and to deceive Americans into thinking the President has done something extraordinary.
Last week, under serious stress from high-level donors and Vice President Biden’s own “misstep” on Meet The Press, Obama came out in an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts in favor of gay marriage:
…at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to goahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.
The mainstream media and other doting sycophants exploded in fawning delight. They declared Obama brave. Roberts, discussing the interview with contraception-lover George Stephanopolous, said she was getting “chills” just thinking about it. On MSNBC’s Martin Bashir program, leftist pundit Krystal Ball referred to the announcement as “historic.”
Yet, as Bruce Carroll of GayPatriot.net noted on Daily Caller, what’s so historic about something that former Vice President Dick Cheney did back in 2009, which caused New York Magazine to call him a “Gay-Marriage Pioneer?” (Come to think of it, what’s so brave about being backed in to a position by your Vice President? A position that you were going to announce just before the Democratic National Convention? Also, what is so historic about a man vocalizing an opinion he held in 1996, only to put it–and gays–in the closet so he could become a Senator and then President, pulling those same gays out of the closet when it became politically expedient?)As Carroll noted:
After the initial glow, however, those of us who look at life more critically and through the prism of reality like, for example, the law and the U.S. Constitution, found Obama’s announcement to be anything but historic. All he did was state his personal perspective on a social matter. Did he say he was going to ask Congress to repeal the “Defense of Marriage Act” signed by President Clinton? Nope. Did he urge all 50 governors to move toward same-sex marriage recognition in their state? Nope. Did he say he would back efforts for a gay marriage plank in the DNC platform at the Democratic Convention. Nope.
Once again, Obama is all bluster, no bite. (I would have said, “All bark, no bite.” but I didn’t want to make the man hungry.)The cover is a two-fer, as it was designed not only to “praise” the President and lie to passers by, but also to take on the competition. After TIME magazine came out with its now-infamous breast feeding cover, Newsweek editor Tina Brown declared, “Let the games begin!”But this isn’t a game. This isn’t even rational. Is Newsweek calling Obama gay? Exactly what about supporting gay marriage makes one gay? Wouldn’t he still, by definition, have to have a sexual proclivity towards men? At the very least, wouldn’t Obama, like Carroll argues, have to do something more than make an awkward, calculated pronouncement?Newsweek is perfectly willing to label elected officials as needed in order to sell magazines. What covers are next in the Brown arsenal? The First Jewish President–next to a picture of Louis Farrakkhan, with a blue and white halo surrounding the yarmulke on his head?
The article within Newsweek is written by Andrew Sullivan who, for years, has been parading around as a conservative, in the same way David Frum parades around as a conservative…and Meghan McCain…and Sen. Lindsay Graham.From excerpts taken from the Daily Mail, Sullivan writes:
‘When you step back a little and assess the record of Obama on gay rights, you see, in fact, that this was not an aberration. It was an inevitable culmination of three years of work,’ Mr Sullivan said in a statement about the article.’He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family,’ he wrote, describing the similarities between Mr Obama and the gay community.
True, Obama repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” True, he instructed the Justice Department not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. However, the only “inevitable culmination” over the past three years is that President Obama is a cold, calculating politician who will do anything necessary to help his re-elect, including pretending to give a damn about gay America.
Sullivan’s commentary is engaging a therapy session with America about his own coming out. I can only imagine that doing so is difficult for many, but it’s not the basis for calling the President gay.A fantastic cover will sell magazines. But Newsweek hasn’t sold magazines here, they’ve taken labeling to a whole new level.Here’s a more accurate cover: Newsweek lied. Obama isn’t brave. Gay America got nothing except more lip service.
And there are 175 days until Election Day.