Barack Obama gave a terrific State of the Union address, which included two references to the LGBT community, the same number included in his historic Inauguration Address. According to Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed:
Obama did include broad references to LGBT equality in the speech, saying that part of “the basic bargain” in America is that “if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, or who you love.”
He most directly addressed an area of LGBT advocates’ concern when he later said, “We will ensure equal treatment for all service members, and equal benefits for their families — gay and straight.”
According to Geidner, “those mentions were enough to appease LGBT advocates, especially given the prominence their issues received in Obama’s Inaugural address in January.”
“Of course, we would have liked to have seen our community’s priorities in the speech,” Human Rights Campaign’s spokesman, Fred Sainz, told BuzzFeed. “But let me be clear: the references in the speech were meaningful. Both reaffirm his commitment to equality in ways that are substantively and thematically important.”
I’m pretty damn impressed and pleased with these mentions. Obama has become the President we always wanted him to be. The difference between a Romney presidency and the one we are getting from Obama are stark and as different as night and day (excluding Sweden and parts of Alaska in winter). Yes, Obama has much more to do, and the LGBT community can’t stop fighting and pressuring the White House to go fur
ther. However, it does seem that this president is making history for our community every week. It seems we are a priority and that he is resting part of his legacy on advancing LGBT equality.
On the flip side, Marco Rubio looked angry last night, and gave a churlish and bitter response to Obama’s uplifting speech. Fortunately for the grossly overrated senator from Florida, no one will recall his foolish and prosaic prose, as all anyone will remember is his awkward lurch for a water bottle in mid-speech.
Will what is being billed as “Watergate” end Rubio’s hopes at higher office? Did this bizarre moment make Rubio appear not ready for Prime Time?
I could not help but notice that when President Obama spoke of fairness for gay military families, and many applauded him, Bigot Boehner sat there with a gay-bashing scowl on his face. As we know, Rubiocito also is an anti-gay bigot, and a politician who panders to other anti-gay bigots.
Doing the Republican response to Obama’s State of the Union speech seems to be a buzz kill. The Republicans all used to say how promising Jindal was untill he gave this speech and suddenly was being compared to Kenneth the page. Then, of course, there was the crazy Michelle Bachmann response and now the underwhelming and apparently dehydrated Rubio.
Republican politicians should think twice before they agree to do this.
I’m not a fan of Rubio, but if reaching for water can end a political career our system is in even more trouble than I thought, and that’s saying something. It merits a moment in an SNL skit, nothing more.
Boo, it wasn’t the reaching for the water. It’s the build-up he recieved. For weeks now conservative pundits have been building Rubio up as the future of the Republican party–it’s just too much to live up to for anyone. The water is just what people are focusing on.
Boo:
This is America. We elect our politicians on how nice their hair looks, how well they dress, if they have starred in movies, and if they have a prominent family. Issues are WAY at the back of the line.
In terms of the water bottle — it matters, even though I agree with you that it shouldn’t. How much different is the water incident than Richard Nixon sweating in his debate with JFK? Or, Howard Dean’s scream, that unfairly set back his career?
Screams, sweat, and water bottles matter at least as much, and probably more, than the platform of the politician. It’s sad, but true.
The water bottle was a metaphor for the aridity of the old, sterile Republican ideas that Rubio was mouthing before he took a break. I had MSNBC on for the State of the Union, and when Rubio came on, I could not help but wonder if he knew what the president had said, and if he realized that his (Rubio’s) ideas were rejected in the last election because they were duds.
Wayne- I guess I’m not *quite* that cynical yet. There’s a reason women broke for Obama and it wasn’t his hair, clothes, previous job, or family. Ditto Latinos.
I agree with Boo; the water bottle flap – while worthy of the inevitable SNL nod, and several internet memes – isn’t enough for me to count him out. As one friend of mine put it, “first everyday people make those stupid jokes, then the media focuses on it, and then smart people are forced to give it credence by commenting on it.” I hated it when GOPers focused on Dean’s scream, and I’m not gonna focus on Rubio’s water-grab.
One factor in this case is Rubio’s cookie-cutter, unmemorable speech. There wasn’t any out-of-the-norm extremism, no seeds for discussion – just blasé talking points. So, the awkward water bottle grab becomes that much more.. emphasized.
Assuming your a woman by your name, I have to ask you how you could possibly support a man like Rubio? He does not believe in equal pay for equal work nor does he believe in the Violence Against Women Act which he just voted against. On other issues, he wants to do away with the EPA as it reduces corporate profits by making corporations comply with those pesky EPA rules and regulations that are meant to protect the environment. Rubio also believes that the SCOTUS decision regarding Citizens/United is free speech meaning that big business can literally buy elections and politicians. Rubio lied about his family leaving Cuba because of Castro when his family left Cuba before Castro came to power. Rubio is just another lying GOP/Teabagger who fits the Republican mode and seems almost to mirror the likes of Paul Ryan. As for a woman’s right to choose, Rubio does not believe that women should be able to choose for themselves about what to do with their own bodies. He also believes that the Earth just might be around seven thousand years old in order to pander to the christianists. Rubio is truly a piece of work that is just more of the same from the GOP. They have nothing new to offer but the same old, same old!
I *Don’t* support him. Not sure where you read that.
Must have been confused by your “isn’t enough for me to count him out” comment.
That’s a good point Emily. Had he actually said something newsworthy, the water bottle would have not been the story. But, he really didn’t have anything useful to add to the national discussion, which was odd considering Time magazine billed him as the GOP’s savior.
Rubio had his speech ready before Obama gave his, probably long before. He criticized Obama for not having a plan for Medicare, failing to notice that Obama indeed had a plan for Medicare. The rest of the whole sorry display was GOP talking points, not a response.
What should really disqualify him from any public office is that he is a creationist who thinks the age of the Earth is up for debate. Or that he voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
He is your typical Republic. An elitist, homophobic, misogynistic religious fanatic. Nothing new about him.
he is cute, that’s about it.