Obama Traps Himself With Gay-Marriage 'Contradiction'

Charles Krauthammer: If it's a civil right, how can he let states deny it?
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 18, 2012 11:37 AM CDT
Obama Traps Himself With Gay-Marriage 'Contradiction'
President Obama speaks in Washington Friday.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Charles Krauthammer sees a "howling contradiction" in President Obama's new position on gay marriage. It's one thing to have "empathy" for the cause, he writes in the Washington Post, to feel badly for gay friends and acquaintances who can't legally marry. It's quite another to call it the next logical step in the civil rights battle, as the president did. If gay marriage is, in fact, a civil right, how can Obama abide any state denying it?

"Notwithstanding a comically fawning press, Obama knows he has boxed himself in," writes Krauthammer. "His 'rights' argument compels him to nationalize same-sex marriage and sharpen hostility toward proponents of traditional marriage—a place he is loath to go." Yes, Joe Biden rushed him into this, but the president should have thought this out better. He's "too intelligent not to realize he's embraced a logical contradiction." Read Krauthammer's full column here. (More gay marriage stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X