How to make it better; or, what a real Democratic leader is like

[drwex]

New York state has now legalized same-sex marriage. It has been obvious for a couple years now that opponents of marriage equality are fighting rear-guard actions. From a high of passing state-level DOMA laws last decade to now when DoJ won't defend the federal law and we are creeping toward a situation where 1/4th of the country will recognize all couples' rights in marital arrangements. The war isn't yet won, and won't be for some time, but momentum is on the side of equality now.

If you have not read it already, I highly recommend Michael Barbaro's piece in the NY Times about how this was made to happen: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/nyregion/the-road-to-gay-marriage-in-new-york.html?_r=1

Nate Silver picks up on some of this in his column (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/cuomos-presidential-moment-forms-contrast-with-obama/) and in particular highlights how Cuomo's style contrasts with Obama's. What would it look like if Obama actually got out there and led rather than making nice speeches and letting others do the heavy lifting? I suspect it would look like this fight - tough, nail-biting, down to the individual vote counts. And maybe we'd still lose some, but at least we'd feel like we were in the fight instead of capitulating every time the Republicans say "boo".

Cuomo's style is hands-on and top-down, with tight control over rogue elements in the coalition. He comes across as a guy with political brass balls as well as heart and brains. Right now I think Obama's testicles are named "Hilary Clinton" and "Nancy Pelosi".

Oh, and while we're doing tallies you baseball fans may be interested to know that the Minnesota Twins have announced they'll be making a team "It Gets Better" video, joining the Red Sox, Cubs, Mariners, and Giants who have already done so.

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Barbaro's piece highlighted two tools Cuomo has that Obama does not:

But the donors in the room — the billionaire Paul Singer, whose son is gay, joined by the hedge fund managers Cliff Asness and Daniel Loeb — had the influence and the money to insulate nervous senators from conservative backlash if they supported the marriage measure. And they were inclined to see the issue as one of personal freedom, consistent with their more libertarian views.

and

“I can help you,” Mr. Cuomo assured them in dozens of telephone calls and meetings, at times pledging to deploy his record-high popularity across the state to protect them in their districts. “I am more of an asset than the vote will be a liability.”

I disagree

[drwex]

Obama is no longer wildly popular - he's largely squandered that - but he's not unpopular either. His positives outweigh his negatives consistently and he polls better even at this point in his term than most presidents of recent memory. He just isn't (or hasn't with a few exceptions such as Rahm) willing to deploy that for dirty local politics.

And if you're claiming that Obama's people can't locate key fundraisers in the other camp who may be convinced - as Cuomo did - then you're saying his people suck at opposition research. Which I also disbelieve