Veronique de Rugy wonders why gays are disappointed by President Obama:

Obama was and is still against gay marriage. Seriously, whatever your position on the issue of gay marriage is, it should at least have been a clue that the guy wouldn’t become a great advocate for the agenda of gay leaders. Right?

I think Veronique’s overlooking a central reality of contemporary electoral politics: Democrats win by pretending to be to the right of who they really are. Their base understands and accepts this. Thus, when Democrat candidates profess to believe that “marriage is between a man and a woman” or to be “personally passionately opposed to abortion” or even to favor “the good war” in Afghanistan and if necessary invade Pakistan, their base hears this as a necessary rhetorical genuflection to the knuckledragging masses but one that will be conveniently discarded on the first day in office.

On balance, this seems a healthier reaction than falling like schoolgirls for the candidate’s “centrism,” “fiscal responsibility,” “post-partisan temperament,” and other hooey like certain conservatives thinkers we could mention.