Were the Pundits Wrong About Obama on Marriage Equality?
After Barack Obama endorsed marriage equality during an interview with ABC News in May, media covered his evolution by sounding an alarm — might the president have just thrown away his reelection?
Some warned it could lead to the demise of the coalition of minority voters that had sent Obama to the White House, especially African-Americans and Latinos, who were assumed to be socially conservative. Others picked a list of states the president might have given up by saying the words, "I think same-sex couples should be able to get married."
The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Obama and gay marriage: What he's risking in an election year." Specifically, it predicted, "The move is likely to hurt him in the South."
Bloomberg News headlined it this way: "Obama Gay-Marriage Embrace Is Campaign Risk-Taking Moment." The report suggested Obama had stepped into "the most divisive civil-rights issue in the nation." Like many other reports, it pointed to the risk of losing North Carolina, where voters had just one day earlier approved by a 20-point margin a ballot measure amending their state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. The story implied that Obama's decision might also make the difference in other crucial swing states where marriage bans were passed during recent years — including Florida and Virginia. But assuming that matters puts 30 states in play.
http://www.advocate.com/politics/election/2012/11/05/best-case-scenario-marriage-equality-comes-life-obama
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