Obama and Miss California

In a 2007 Chicago Tribune interview, Barack Obama said, “I’m a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue … my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.”

Miss California, Carrie Prejean, at the April 19, 2009, Miss USA pageant, said: “We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.”

{mosads}Carrie Prejean, first runner-up to Miss USA, holds the same position on gay marriage as Barack Obama (at least for his 2008 campaign), Joe Biden, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton and the majority of Americans, according to polls.

Miss USA judge and Hollywood blogger “Perez Hilton” (real name: Mario Lavandeira) forced his own political agenda onto the nationally televised Miss USA pageant when he asked Miss California if she supported gay marriage. An out homosexual who traffics in outing closeted gays, gossiping and trashing celebrities, having Hilton as a pageant judge — hired, presumably, by NBC — was hardly an accident. After all, this is the same guy who in August 2007 excitedly “reported” that Fidel Castro had died. Fidel’s cold heart, unfortunately for Cuba’s political prisoners, still beats. One does not have to be a professional media critic to see through the transparent agenda of those who placed Hilton/Lavandeira on the judges’ panel. Surely they knew what they were getting with this gadfly, and were hoping for Jerry Springer-esque controversy and fireworks. He did not disappoint.

Hilton now refers to Miss California as a “dumb b—h” (and even uses the C word) for her position on gay marriage, yet there are no such verbally violent, vulgar assaults on Obama for stating the identical position. Hilton no doubt surmised it would be much better for his career to bloody up a 21-year-old beauty pageant contestant than it would be to attempt to smack around a 47-year-old African-American presidential candidate or president. It’s so much more cool and politically correct to beat up the pageant queen — a political correctness that goes far, far beyond the issue of gay marriage. It has now reached the level of out-and-out bullying purely for sport.

If Perez Hilton and others desperate for media attention and jumping on the bully bandwagon actually believed what they were saying, held convictions and stood on principle rather than in the spotlight, they would not have waited until April 2009 and a Miss USA pageant to throw mud at someone in the public eye expressing disagreement with their position. They would have spoken out against Obama during his campaign with the same venom and fervor they instead reserved for the young Miss California who possesses not one iota of the power of a president.

But career buffoons like Perez Hilton are cowards, as well as hypocrites. The media coddle him by refraining from inquiring as to why he never slung such mud as “dumb b—h” (or worse) at Obama or Hillary Clinton yet feels disturbingly comfortable, confident and even giddy about abusing his position as a pageant judge to slash away at a contestant in such a nauseating manner. The compliant, enabling media are essentially cheering on the bully as he harasses the pageant contestant, engaging in rubbernecking rather than reporting.

Campaigning for the Illinois state Senate in 1996, Obama strongly supported gay marriage, “and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” But while crafting his run for the White House, national polling indicated more Americans oppose same-sex marriage than support it.

Interestingly, the media are not asking President Obama what precipitated his change in position. Is Perez Hilton even curious?

When Americans cast votes without bullies and the PC police watching over their shoulders, gay marriage loses, as we saw last year with California’s Proposition 8, rendering gay marriage illegal.

Clearly, Obama’s 180 on gay marriage was done exclusively for political expediency, to win a contest. Carrie Prejean has higher standards.

Jacobus, president of Capitol Strategies PR, has managed congressional campaigns, worked on Capitol Hill and is an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.  She appears on CNN, MSNBC and FOX News as a GOP strategist.