Unwed teenage mother Bristol Palin (daughter of ex-politician/vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin) has criticized Barack Obama’s support of gay marriage on the grounds that, and I’m quoting here: ” in general kids do better growing up in a mother/father home.”

The crux of her argument, though, is that Obama said he was inspired by his daughters, who don’t share his generation’s inbred hatred of gay people.  Obama:

“You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and, frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

The young Palin  tries to paint this as hypocritical, citing the fact that former Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann was questioned by the press about her stated Christian duty to be submissive to her husband.

Once, Michele Bachmann, for example, was asked during a debate, “As president, would you be submissive to your husband?”

People automatically assume that a Christian female President isn’t capable of making decisions without her spouse’s stamp of approval.  (I should add female Republican candidates –liberal women don’t get the same kind of questions.)

So are all those reporters who feared excessive family intervention in the White House all up in arms over the President’s announcement yesterday?  Um.  Not quite.

Bachmann inability to work independent of her husband was not questioned because she was a Christian, it was questioned because she herself said that she blindly did what her husband told her to do, even when she disagreed with it.  Bachmann:

Back in October 2006, recounting her life journey to an audience at the Living Word Christian Center, Bachmann talked about “receiving Jesus” at 16, studying hard, meeting her future husband at college, and earning a law degree. “My husband said ‘Now you need to go and get a post-doctorate degree in tax law.’ Tax law! I hate taxes—why should I go and do something like that?” she told the audience. “But the Lord says be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.”

Bachmann said she never had taken a tax course, “never had a desire for it,” but “I was going to be faithful to what I felt God was calling me to do through my husband.” Later, when the opportunity to run for Congress arose, “my husband said, ‘You need to do this,’ and I wasn’t so sure.” She became sure two days later, after praying and fasting with her husband.

There’s nothing wrong with talking to your spouse, getting ideas from them, or changing your mind because they convinced you otherwise; but if Bachmann had become president, the fact that she takes orders from her husband and follows them without question is kind of problematic.

And it’s not at all similar to Obama supposedly getting an idea from his kids.

I’m too cynical to think that Obama looked upon his innocent children, saw their acceptance and love for people different from themselves, and was inspired to change his own views.  Instead, I think he saw in his daughters the unmistakable fact that the political winds have changed, and that it was now safe to say out loud the opinions he had always held, but was too afraid to state for fear of losing an election.

As Obama said, this is a generational issue; and aside from a few relics like Palin, the old generation is well on its way out.

U.S. President Barack Obama has come out as a supporter of same-sex marriage.

President Barack Obama said in an interview with ABC that “it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

He was pro-gay marriage early in his political career, but got very wishy-washy once the white house started looking like a possibility. In the past few years, he has only said that his ‘opinion is evolving’ on the issue.

He cited his children as a reason for his shift:

“It’s interesting, some of this is also generational,” he said. “You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents.

“And Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them, and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

So why now?  It’s an election year, and he has to win back the ardent supporters that got him the win the first time around.  Many of them have been disillusioned by Obama’s middle-ground, appeasing-the-right style of politics that left dreams of universal health care, an end to the wars, and countless others unfulfilled.

The fact is, Romney will have no problem stating his opposition to gay marriage emphatically (and after this announcement, you can be damn sure he will).  Had Obama remained off-the-record on the issue, everyone would have thought that he was secretly against them, anyways.  At least now, he’ll make the slight majority of Americans who support gay marriage happy; even if he alienates the 48% who oppose it in the process.