Barry, Come Out of the Closet

While Andrew Cuomo was leading the charge on gay marriage, Barack Obama was sitting on his hands and "evolving," complains Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, which, "as any girl will tell you, is the first sign of a commitment-phobe." He trumpeted gay rights at a LGBT fundraiser this week that he shook down for $750,000, but held to his belief that states should decide the issue. And it's not just with gay marriage that he's playing both sides, Dowd says—it's with everything. "In Afghanistan, he wants to go but he wants to stay." In Libya, he's "engaging in hostilities against Gadhafi while telling Congress he’s not engaging in hostilities against Gadhafi."

Obama rails on Wall Street fat cats, then cozies up to their wallets. He wants health care for all, but won't stick up for the universal option. He wants more domestic energy production, but won't drill, baby. And on and on. "It’s not enough to understand how everybody in the room thinks. You have to decide which ones in the room are right, and stand with them," Dowd writes. Obama needs to "show up," as Chris Christie says. "On some of the most important issues facing this nation, it is time for the president to come out of the closet," concludes Dowd. (More President Obama stories.)