Why Obama Is Wrong -- and Why He Might Win

Comedian Groucho Marx quipped, “Those are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others.”

When President Obama on Wednesday became the first sitting president to endorse same-sex marriages, was his decision the result of having:

1. Consulted with staff, openly gay and lesbian servicemembers
2. Asked his wife and daughters
3. Hoped it would engender financial support for his re-election bid
4. Prayed about it
5. Sought the advice of his spiritual adviser
6. All of the above

If you answered "All of the above," you are almost right.  Only ‘5' is in error.  He didn’t seek the Rev. Joel Hunter’s advice. 

He told him.

Hunter, who Obama calls his spiritual adviser, is pastor of the 15,000-member Northland church in Longwood, Fla. He said Obama called him before ABC News broadcast the announcement Wednesday.

“One of the reasons he was calling was to ... give me a 'heads up' on an interview he had just done," Hunter said, adding that the president said he had “prayed about it.”

Praying done, Obama and his aides are now passing the offering plate, hoping to fill it with cash -- lots of it -- in a fundraising gambit for his re-election campaign.

Within hours of his interview, in which he declared for the first time his support for gay marriage, Obama blasted out a fundraising email to supporters.

Just one day after his heart-to-heart with a higher power,  Obama will be
preaching to a congregation of celebrities in Hollywood, home to some of the
most high-profile backers of gay marriage. The 150 donors will pay $40,000 to attend George Clooney's dinner, featuring  Obama.

It’s sold out – not a reference to the president but to the well-heeled guests who are expected to shell out a collective $15 million – an unprecedented amount for a single event. And it means that in one single evening the Obama camp and the Democratic Party will collect more than Mitt Romney has amassed in his best single month of fundraising.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday rejected any suggestion that the president was looking to use his announcement to raise campaign funds.

"‘I really dismiss the idea that this had anything to do with money, I really do,’ she said.”

Spare us, Nancy.  Hardly anyone else believes that.  

At last check a whopping 75.7 percent of poll respondants believed money trumped Obama’s piety as the primary motivator of his new-found evolutionary position.  Only 3.1 percent believed that “his conscience was clawing at him, and he had a genuine change of heart.”

By Wednesday evening, Obama had sent out a campaign email saying: "Today, I was asked a direct question and gave a direct answer: I believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry."

The email included a link for supporters to donate to the campaign.

Tonight, Obama will be in Seattle where he is expected to collect at least $3 million toward his re-election effort. Then it’s off to Hollywood, Reno and New York fundraisers sponsored by gay supporters.

In an essay entitled “The Anatomy of Compromise”, the author writes: “The present state of our culture may be gauged by the extent to which principles have vanished from public discussion, reducing our cultural atmosphere to (a) ... sordid, petty senselessness ... while betraying all its major values, selling out its future for some spurious advantage of the moment ... (that) one must compromise with anybody on anything ... and by panicky appeals to ‘practicality.’ ” 

As this presidential political contest proceeds, principles – or lack thereof, certainly principles diametrically opposed – may well determine the outcome. 
A review of the essay on principles suggests that when two groups have not the same principles, “the more evil or more irrational entity will win. If principles are clearly defined and the groups hold opposite views, the more rational one will win.

"The more irrational one will win when the principles are hidden and not clearly defined.”

Certainly doesn’t say much for the culture that supports a candidate whose principles appear to be in flux and suspiciously tied to fundraising junkets. 

Neither is it commendatory to hear, as I had a conservative congressional candidate once tell me, that “sometimes, in order to get elected, you have to sacrifice your principles.”

He lost.