Kind of hard to argue with the guy. Joe has been arguing for a while now that the Republicans are increasingly hiding for cover on this issue behind President Obama, and it's going to cause increasing problems for the President. The "I'm evolving" line starts getting old when years pass and your position hasn't changed (other than to de-evolve from where you were in the 1990s, i.e., in favor of marriage equality). Joe looks at the election dynamics:
The Republicans are comparing themselves to Obama for a reason. Imagine what will happen during a debate this fall when the GOP candidate says that he has the same position on marriage as Obama. That's not going to be very inspiring. And, that's probably their intent. Let's be realistic, marriage is not going to be the decisive issue for most voters. The people who are going to vote against Obama because of gay issues already think he supports marriage. He's already lost them -- and probably never had them.As an aside, Chris Christie is a rhetorical bully. I'm really surprised. I kept hearing about how he's a different kind of Republican, and the preferred presidential candidate. He looks and acts like he popped out of an episode of Jersey Shore (very tough guy/regular guy NY, with more than a bit of dumb thrown in). The man is also going to have to reel in his inner Sean Hannity if he seriously wants to run for national office. You can't just run over people who are trying to ask you a simple question, and hope the clock runs out before anyone catches on. It's very Newt Gingrich (though dumbed down a couple dozen IQ points), and it doesn't go over well.
But, the President can gain enthusiasm from one of the key voting groups that campaign manager Jim Messina keeps saying he's targeting: young people. Yesterday, PPP released a poll from Washington State that found "Young voters support gay marriage 63/32." Last May, the Washington Post reported that is poll in swing state of Virginia "shows that nearly three-quarters of those ages 18 to 29 say gays should be able to legally wed." In DC, the conventional wisdom is that supporting marriage will hurt a candidate. That's not true anymore, but it takes DC a long time to catch up with reality.
