On DADT: Perhaps President Obama is more capable than I thought

Liberals will no doubt celebrate Obama's #DADT victory with the same passion they brought to bitching about his compromises. Yes?

via twitter.com

Er, maybe not the SAME passion, Dave Roberts, but yes: One should give credit where it's due. And I've criticized President Obama quite a bit this last year for moving with something-less-than-alacrity regarding gay-rights issues, so it's only fair for me to acknowledge that his strategy worked.

Unlike Bill Clinton who rushed -- and faltered through -- the issue of gays in the military, President Obama took his time, marshaled support from *enough* of the military's top leadership to be convincing, and went through a process that showed the appearance (at least) of listening to the troops. And when surveys showed that the troops were a lot less bigoted towards gays than they'd been a generation ago, opponents of a DADT repeal had very little rational ground to hold.

Still, I'm not sure how much of this is due to Obama's strategy, how much is due to the passage of time and the liberalizing of opinions about gays in America, and how much is due to the legislative savvy of Joe Lieberman. (No, really!) But it's a victory -- an important and historic one -- and it's one that will be credited in large part to President Obama. So ... good job, Mr. President. Keep it up.

Now, if we can just get you to start picking up the pace of judicial appointments....