Zeke Miller at Time broke the news that former Obama strategist David Axelrod wrote in his book that President Barack Obama misled the nation on his position on marriage during the 2008 elections.
Axelrod wrote in his new book, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics, that President Obama during his first presidential campaign for political benefit claimed that he was against same sex marriage for religious reasons.
Axelrod claims in his book that after appearing with his opponent U.S. Senator John McCain at the Saddleback Civil Forum, facilitated by Pastor Rick Warren, Obama said to him, “I’m just not very good at bullshitting.”
Axelrod who knew that he favored same-sex marriage said he counseled him to take this approach. “Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church, and as he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a ‘sacred union,’ ” Axelrod writes.
Which while savvy political advice since African-Americans turned out overwhelmingly at the polls in California to vote for President Obama and Proposition 8 that amended California’s State Constitution to define marriage being between one man and one woman. Proposition 8 was later overturned in federal court and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on that decision.
In the midst of the 2012 race President Obama “came out” in favor of same sex marriage. I said then and I say now. We should not be surprised even though President Obama is trying to deny it.
“I think David is mixing up my personal feelings with my position on the issue,” Obama said during an interview with Buzzfeed. “I always felt that same-sex couples should be able to enjoy the same rights, legally, as anybody else and so it was frustrating to me not to, I think, be able to square that with what were a whole bunch of religious sensitivities out there.”
No Axelrod wasn’t mixing up his personal feelings with his position on the issue. Back in 1996 he answered on a campaign questionnaire that he supported same sex marriage.
President Obama now has a track record of lying here are five lies that have shaped his presidency. Here are a few.
“If you like your health care plan you can keep it.” Well… not so much.
“The Fast and Furious program was field initiated under the previous administration.” Only if President Bush was still in office in the fall of 2009.
“Not even a smidgen of corruption.” Apparently there was or else the IRS wouldn’t have been forced to shell out $50K to the National Organization for Marriage.
About Benghazi President Obama, during the same interview he told the fib about corruption at the IRS, said, “We revealed to the American people exactly what we understood at the time.”
And yep, another lie.
“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.” Even liberal constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley didn’t buy that. He said during an interview with Sean Hannity, “Barack Obama is really the president Richard Nixon always wanted to be.”
Those are just five. There are plenty more. We can add his “opposition” to same sex marriage to the list. Maybe President Obama is better at “bullshitting” than he thinks.