Those are some fighting words from the Obama administration, and they're almost certainly an outright lie.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told the Netroots Nation blog conference this morning that the Barack Obama never filled out the 1996 questionnaire, when he was running for the Illinois legislature, in which he averred that he supports gay marriage. The questionnaire - two questionnaires in fact - have been out there for years - 15 years in fact - and it has caused the President, who now claims to oppose marriage equality for gay couples, a good amount of heartburn as reporters, such as the Blade's Chris Johnson, keep asking the White House it.
This is the first time Obama has tried to question the questionnaires' authenticity. Both are fakes?
Here's Pfeiffer this morning:
"If you actually go back and look, that questionnaire was actually filled out by someone else, not the President."So who is this poser who filled out the questionnaires and lied about Barack Obama's position on gay marriage? Here's one of the questionnaires, you can find the liar's signature at the bottom:
No, your eyes don't deceive you. That's Barack Obama who signed the questionnaire.
Here's Ben Smith at Politico, writing about the questionnaires in 2009:
In a 1996 questionnaire filled out for a Chicago gay and lesbian newspaper, then called Outlines, Obama came out clearly in favor of same-sex marriage, which he has opposed on the public record throughout his short career in national politics.Ben includes a copy of one of the questionnaire's, obtained from the Windy City Times.
“I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages,” Obama wrote in the typed, signed, statement.
There was no use of “civil unions,” and "no compromise whatsoever," the Windy City Times story today notes.
On another questionnaire the same year, Obama said he would support a resolution in support of same-sex marriage.
So the President is now alleging that that signature is a forgery? And he only realized this today? Why didn't the White House tell anyone this version of events two years ago when Ben did this story? Or any time over the past 15 years that this story has been reported over and over again?
It's one thing for the President not to support gay marriage (and it would be a problem nonetheless). But this President supported gay marriage, repeatedly, and now claims he doesn't. And now he appears to be lying about the issue.
That's not fierce advocacy.
