UPDATE: A few tweets that are spot on about today's rumors.
“@marcambinder: White House cancels its press briefing for the day. #semiotics #couldmeannothing”
“@samsteinhp: if the president is not going to come out in support of SSM then the White House is letting the speculation get a bit out of hand”Odd story. The White House seems to have put out the word, to some reporters, that the President will talk to ABC today about his "evolution" on gay marriage. While it sounds like he just might come out for gay marriage, I'm having a hard time believing it, in spite of the fact that the electoral math arcs in the direction of marriage equality.
I think the worst thing the President could do today is put out some split-the-baby-in-half statement about marriage that only confuses people more, and sends yet another signal that he's simply playing politics with the issue (since he did once support same-sex marriage).
Will the Republicans use a marriage endorsement against the President? Sure. And they probably will regardless. While Mitt Romney will say in the debates that he has the same position as Barack Obama (in order to tick gays off at the President), the RNC and/or its surrogates will almost certainly do "Obama loves gay marriage" mailings to bigots in the south.
This issue is going to come up at the Democratic convention, regardless - the platform committee will have to decide on a request from a number of top Democrats to include support for marriage equality as a platform plank. It's news if they do, it's news if they don't (and will certainly tick off gays, and their indie supporters, if they don't). Why not short-circuit the news now by coming out for marriage equality. It's not really news if the President has already endorsed it.
Nip it in the bud. Evolve already.
PS More evidence from Politico that something may be up.
