By Bruce Thornton

In yet another act of election-year cynicism, Barack Obama has   just   announced, “I think same-SX couples should be able to get   married.” This   statement follows similar pronouncements by Joe  Biden  and Education  Secretary  Arne Duncan. To hear Obama tell  it, this  change reflects his “evolution” away  from his previously  stated pposition  which he made clear  in 2008 a few days  before  the election: “I  believe marriage is between a  man and a woman. I am  not  in favor of  gay marriage.” That same year he  told Reverend  Rick Warren that   marriage is a “union between a man and a   woman,” adding that it is a “sacred  union” with “God in the mix.” Both  statements contradicted  what he had told a  Chicago gay  newspaper in 1996  while running for  the Illinois state senate: “I  favor legalizing same-sx  marriage.” No  wonder this year’s  electoral conversion  smells suspicious  even to  Obama  cheerleader MSNBC, which on its First Read blog  brushed past    the personal “evolution” pretext and zeroed in on the political  calculus: “Obama’s shift not only speaks to a broad swath of the electorate,    which  has exhibited increasing acceptance of same-sxmarriage in  opinion  polls,   but also gay and lesbian voters who compose a  core part of  Obama’s base,  and  have been major fundraisers for  his  re-election.”

This latest about-face, then, clearly shows that Obama’s 2008   opposition  to  gay marriage was devised to make him appear a  centrist  during the  presidential  election, and that now he  believes he can  speak honestly and  shore up his  progressive  base.

That Obama would say one thing while believing another is well   established  by  his long track record of shifting his policy   positions depending on  whether he  is pandering to the center or  the  left––consider extraordinary  renditions,  military  tribunals,  Guantanamo, or the surge in Iraq, all of  which he   vociferously  opposed until he supported them. Some might think  that  he is a rank   opportunist who believes in none of these positions,  his  public statements  based  on tactical calculations  reflecting polls and  political  necessity. Remember his   principled opposition to the evil Bush  tax  cuts, which he then  extended a month  after the 2010 electoral “shellacking,” as he called  it?