Is Mitt running for president again?

I think there is a distinction to be made between pandering on something like gay marriage, which is a moral/ethical debate, and something like evolution, which is settled science.

That doesn't make what Obama did right, mind you. But it's not exactly the same.

 

When a Democrat panders to the stupid, it's a brilliant strategy, and is celebrated:

There were good reasons to believe Obama was bullshitting, to use his term. In 1996, while running for Illinois state senate, he answered a question from a gay newspaper, saying, "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” (In a classic political we're-stupid-not-dishonest maneuver, Obama communications director Dan Pfeiffer tried to claim Obama hadn't actually filled out the survey.) While running for reelection two years later, he said he was undecided. By 2006, he was citing his Christian beliefs as a reason for opposing gay marriage but adding that he was willing to consider the idea that his stance was "misguided."

That made political, if not moral, sense in the 2008 Democratic primary, where only fringe candidates Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel clearly supported gay marriage. Gallup polling showed that only 40 percent of Americans supported gay marriage. It's tempting to imagine what might have happened if Obama had announced his support earlier, but it still seems likely that he would have been penalized for it politically, perhaps dooming his chances.

So by 2008, Obama's supposed opposition was a fiction, but it was a politically effective one. The press could and did report that Obama had previously felt otherwise, but no one could prove he was lying. Liberals remained convinced that in his heart of hearts, he was lying and would eventually publicly back marriage equality. Conservatives remained convinced that in his heart of hearts, he was lying and was just waiting to announce his backing for marriage equality.

David Axelrod's New Book Says Obama Was Lying About Opposing Gay Marriage - The Atlantic

Liberals -- including in the media -- knew he was lying, they just didn't call him on it.

 

Why? Only one has policy implications.

 

That's not true. STEM education in America is a policy issue.

 

Feel free to show me the post where I ever said or even intimated such a stance. A much more apt analogy would be if Obama were asked whether the Earth revolves around the sun and he responded, "I"m going to punt on that one."

 

Perhaps a fairer representation.

 

So are you actually a creationist then?

That's not meant as an accusation. I'm just clarifying.

 

That's Walker's "no comment"

He needs to change that quickly.

 

If by "creationist" you mean someone who doesn't "believe in evolution" (whatever the fuck that means), no, I'm not.

If by "creationist" you mean someone who believes in "a creator," then yes, I am.

 

Yes, yes. The former. I'm the latter, as well, kind of.

 

And if by "creationist" you mean someone who has nothing but contempt for the jejune jabbing of those trying to reconcile the implications of their faith with the realities of the universe as currently understood ... hell yes I am.

 

Scott Walker's not trying to "reconcile" shit.