Bill Clinton is stumping for his wife in the Silver State, and acknowledges that Obama has the words but does he have the experience to turn words into deeds?
Since the former prez has invited us to think about words and deeds, I'd like to point out that during his administration he said the right words about gay rights, but when it came to deeds gave us Don't Ask Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act.
Words. And deeds. Indeed.
Andrew Sullivan expands on the theme.
6 comments:
If you're going to go that route, Scott, then you have to chastise Obama for McClurkin as well. Lots of pretty words. Not a very pretty action.
You're riding that hobby horse to death, dontcha think? Obama is consistent -- he thinks we should bring together people we disagree with, and he has made it clear he disagrees with McClurkin. And the flip side is that Obama has spoken out for gay people in places he hasn't had to.
No more than you're riding your dislike of Hillary Clinton. And no, Obama is not consistent. He says all manner of nice things about LGBT people when it won't cost him anything, and when the chips are down, he snuggles up to the homophobe.
If he really disagreed with McClurkin, he wouldn't have asked him to appear on his behalf at a campaign event. You don't ask somebody who stands for something you're adamantly opposed to to represent you and your ideals. How would you react, for example, if Hillary Clinton had asked David Duke to appear for her at a campaign event in Louisiana, even if she'd made a major civil-rights speech the day before to the NAACP convention? Be honest: you'd crucify her for it--and you'd be 100% right to do so.
Yet you won't hold Obama to the same standard when it comes to doing the right thing by you and me and all the other LGBT Democratic voters out there. Why is that?
Ah, but my "dislike" is based on tangible proof. The Clintons (two for the price of one, remember) gave us two of the most anti-gay federal policies ever, and even took out radio ads on Christian radio touting that fact.
Name one anti-gay policy that Obama is responsible for.
I don't think you're thinking clearly, Scott. If you're going to blame Hillary for things that happened while her husband was president, again, it's inconsistent of you not to blame Obama for what his surrogates (like McClurkin) have done. For that matter, it's not like Bill Clinton was campaigning on DOMA and DADT--he was saddled with a reluctant Congress who forced his hand there.
But since you've chosen the theme of "Words and Deeds" for this post, would you perhaps care to point to any gay-positive policy or benefit that Obama has provided? Let me help you out by pointing out that while he was a co-sponsor in 2003 of the amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act that added sexual orientation and gender identity to the protected classes, that bill did not in fact pass until after Obama had left for Washington (Gov. Blagojevich signed it into law early in 2005.) Since arriving in Washington, Obama has yet to cast a single vote on any gay-related or gender-related issue, according to his VoteSmart page.
Obama is campaigning on being willing to reach across the aisle to the Republicans and get things done. So why didn't he do that in the Illinois Senate, when the Republicans were in control there and bottling up the change to the IHRA he was sponsoring? Or did he in fact try to reach out to his Republican fellow senators and still not manage to accomplish anything? Either he didn't care enough to try, or his preferred method of doing politics didn't work. Either way you slice it, Obama doesn't exactly measure up to the standard you're setting for Hillary Clinton.
(And for the record, I don't like Hillary Clinton much, either.)
The Clinton's ran ads on Christian radio touting Bill's signing of DOMA. He campaigned on it. And he urged John Kerry to be more anti-gay marriage in 2004. And we hold Hillary accountable for what happened during her husband's term because she is inviting us to. And you completely dodged my question, because you can't point to a single anti-gay policy that has Obama's name on it. And I can point to two of the most aggregious anti-gay policies that have the name Clinton stamped all over them.
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