Boom, Like That

There are a whole host of subjects we'd like to focus on today - especially since it's Election Day in so many places. The recall in Wisconsin, and how the Democratic Party doesn't appear to be supporting it as strongly as they should, for example. Rep. Ron Paul kind of suspending his campaign is another example, as is the Euro Zone coming apart at the seems. Another is the insanity of Republicans blocking the full execution of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, so they can protect their corporate Wall Street friends - all while trying to say President Obama is the one who's really cozy with Wall Street.

We'd like to focus on any of those - and we may very well tackle the gambling exploits and failures of the Wall Street "masters of the universe" tomorrow.

That said, what so much of the media and America are still focused on is still, strangely, the announcement last week of President Obama's support for same-sex marriage.

We say "strangely" because as two major polls pointed out late Monday, a majority of those questioned support same-sex Americans having the same legal rights - including marriage - as their fellow American citizens. We pointed this out last week. Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight.com also called attention to it last week. Many others did too.

Now, both Gallup and a CBS/New York Times poll confirm again, what the "common wisdom" already was thought to be on this issue. Fifty-four percent of Americans think same-sex marriage is morally acceptable. Sixty-two percent support same-sex legal recognition including civil unions.

These facts aren't surprising to us.

Some very logical governors and progressive state legislatures have already moved forward on implementing marriage equality, including former Republican - now turned Independent - Gov. Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island. Chaffee signed an order on Monday that will make it the law in Rhode Island to recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state, in the same way other states accept each other's driver's licenses now - equally.

We're also not surprised Chafee made such a move. He's not afraid of the Republican Party anymore, and especially not the tea bag far-right wing of the party.

Those tea bag types have insisted that President Obama's stand with equal rights for all Americans last week will certainly doom him in the fall election. Once again, though, the tea baggers don't seem to know what they're talking about. Those same polls we quoted earlier also proved that - if the President's action will have any effect on the fall election at all - it'll likely be a wash.

Sure, we've heard of a few pastors and other religious leaders who've said because of the President's stance, they now won't support him in the fall. For every extremist religious authority figure who says they're leaving the Obama camp, we've heard of someone else who says they'll now support the President for his principled stance.

What's more, the people who are coming out for Obama's coming out? Many are big money donors, who have funding they are yanking from Republicans and giving to Democrats, including the President. Strong African-American opinion leaders are also still standing with Obama, so claims that there is some kind of a serious wedge between the LGBT and African-American communities is little more than exaggerated hype.

All things considered, when you add up all the plusses and minuses, it's beginning to look like the "gift" of bigotry that the tea bag Republicans have brought to their party may actually blow up in the face of the GOP this fall.

If it does - and we think it will - we hope we won't have to address this issue again, once the election is over.

As we said last week, America is a first class country. We should not have second-class citizens. Period.