From one of the youngest Democrats in the House, U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, in a good article in The American Prospect about the young, new members on the Hill:
When the president swings for the fences, he tends to hit home runs, and I think that’s what we need right now.
One of the new members of Congress, saying what many of us are thinking. More swinging, less short-sighted calculation.
In this week, from the decision of the fate of California’s Proposition 8 to the announcement of President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. — literally, from sea to shining sea — the President will have two great moments to show us his national leadership.
Here’s to hoping he swings for the fences.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found
What do you envision as Obama’s national leadership on the California Supreme Court’s decision about a procedural matter under the state’s constitution? I don’t think it is appropriate for the executive to weigh in on what the judiciary “should” have decided, particularly a state judiciary.
You obviously haven’t seen my comments at the earlier post from Friday. (In fact, you are so wrong about the intention of this post that I think you’re reading something into it that’s not there or that I need to fix it in some way.)
I in no way believe that Obama should comment on the technical specifics of the ruling. I do, however, think that this is precisely the time — in California on Wednesday — when Obama can do what he has done on so many other issues: rise above the fray to talk about a taboo political topic like race or abortion and confront some of the difficult questions that marriage equality raises for passionate folks of good will on all sides of the issue. He can be a leader for the nation — especially, depending on the decision, for those who might feel shell-shocked by a decision upholding Prop 8 or for those who feel betrayed by one striking it down.
Given the anger expressed by the commenters in your Friday post and the statements that pro-SSM folks have been making about the need to protest even the court decision, I don’t think there’s any good way for Obama to talk about this. Unlike you, he’s in totally the wrong role to try to talk pro-SSM folks into being calmer about this: he’s not gay, he’s not pro-SSM himself, and there’s still lingering bad feelings that the turnout of black voters to support him also led to Prop. 8’s passage. If I were a pissed off gay person today and I heard Obama tell me to calm down, I’ll tell him to go screw himself.