After being hounded for the last few days about gay marriage, President Obama will sit down for an interview with ABC News to discuss the issue. The interview will be recorded this afternoon, and portions will air tonight on ABC Nightly News. The full interview will air on Thursday morning on Good Morning America, but ABC says it will immediately release any headlines from the interview. The White House cancelled its daily press briefing today, and everyone expects President Obama to make news with his remarks in this interview.
I don’t think the President has any choice but to endorse gay marriage at this point. How will that work with respect to specific policy? It’s difficult to say. Will he endorse gay marriage while leaving it to the states to adjudicate? Will he endorse some federal policy encouraging or mandating gay marriage? He’s already instructed his justice department not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act. Will he speak in favor of legislative efforts to have DOMA overturned?
My hunch is that he’ll personally endorse gay marriage while advocating policies that don’t go much beyond what he’s already doing. We’ll find out soon enough.
