Do Obama and Miss California Have the Same Position on Gay Marriage? Sort of.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

I was at a, err, opposite-sex wedding over the weekend when one of the guests asked me, presumably as the member of the MSM on hand, why Carrie Prejean, Miss California, gets lambasted for being anti-gay marriage, while Barack Obama, the president of the United States, gets a free pass while having essentially the same position.

The answer lies in tone and nuance.

It is true that Obama's position is that marriage is "between a man and a woman" and that he is "not in favor of gay marriage." That said, he articulately advocates for the rights of gay couples on things like hospital visitation. See here, for example, starting at about 1:06: "When I sit down and read scripture and I think how would Jesus feel about somebody not being able to visit someone they love when they're sick, I conclude that that is something that's important."

And it is possible that some portion of people suspect that Obama would favor gay marriage were it a politically viable position: He's secretly with us, not like that nasty Miss California. And even if that's not the case, he's good on enough other stuff that he can get a pass on this.

Then there's Miss California, whose now-famous answer to the question seems like instant, inadvertent beauty pageant satire.

Well I think that it's great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. Umm, we live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And, you know what, in my country, and in my family, I think that a marriage should be between a man and a woman—no offense to anyone out there...

Like I said, presumably inadvertent self-satire. This is not exactly the most articulate voice of the anti-gay marriage movement—which is of course exactly what she now is, cutting an ad and taking to the airwaves to defend the institution of "opposite-marriage." As TNR's Michelle Cottle has pointed out, Prejean is actually a perfect spokesperson for the anti-gay marriage movement, coming from an anachronistic institution like the Miss USA pageant.

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