DO WE EVEN WANT THE PRESIDENT ON OUR SIDE ON GAY MARRIAGE?

President Obama won't budge on gay marriage:

President Obama remains opposed to same-sex marriage despite a federal judge's decision to strike down a ban on such marriages, a top White House adviser said Thursday.

Senior adviser David Axelrod said the president supports "equality" for gay and lesbian couples, but did not address directly Obama's position on Wednesday's court ruling, which struck down as unconstitutional California's Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage in the state.

"The president does oppose same-sex marriage, but he supports equality for gay and lesbian couples, and benefits and other issues, and that has been effectuated in federal agencies under his control," Axelrod said on MSNBC....

The position makes no sense -- but does it matter? In fact, given the monomaniacal desire of the right to thwart just about anything Barack Obama wants, might it be helpful that he's not fighting for gay marriage? Might it be helpful right now that this issue isn't associated with him?

What coiuld he do right now? Get the Defense of Marriage Act overturned? In this Congress, with this Senate? Forget it. And as a leader on this issue, he might even be toxic, as he is on so many other issues these days.

So an ostensibly liberal Democratic president is against gay marriage, while a Reagan-appointed judge declares the ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, thanks in large part to the legal work of Ted Olson. Maybe we should just leave things as they are, with a few of the usual lines in the sand crossed. And as for Obama, well, he's alienating a significant part of his base -- but that's his problem.