Earlier this week, Glenn spoke about the trend among progressive politicians (i.e. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano, etc.) to refer to their politically expedient flip-flops on issues as an ‘evolution.’ When former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano attempted to explain her newfound support of gay marriage, she essentially admitted she had previously not supported gay marriage because it was not popular opinion at the time. But now that the “arc of history” has evolved, she is much more willing to have the opinion that is now more mainstream.
On radio this morning, Glenn played a brilliant video from MRCTV's Dan Joseph that offers a candid look at how the American people – specifically, students at George Mason University – feel about Hillary Clinton’s personal transformation as it relates to gay marriage.
“So up on TheBlaze, there is something great from Dan Joseph. He's from MRC… This one is about Hillary Clinton and her stance on gay marriage,” Glenn said. “And it is amazing that he did this week because this is exactly the point I made – what, three days ago – that she’ll do anything to get elected.”
Joseph reads students a quote from Clinton dating back to 2000 in which she said, ”Marriage has historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman,” and asks them to identify who said it. Needless to say, the majority of respondents believe it to be a conservative or Republican. When they find out the quote is attributed to Clinton, their reactions are pretty surprising.
Watch the MRCTV video below:
Clinton’s evolution is particularly interesting when you consider the recent resignation of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich over a contribution he made eight years ago in support of Proposition 8. Eich was not afforded that same benefit of the doubt Clinton, our current President, and others often enjoy.
“Hillary Clinton can evolve since 10 years ago. [But] a guy who is a CEO of a company, he can't evolve. No, no,” Glenn said. “He had a view eight years ago. But we got to stop him from being, you know, a CEO of a company that… doesn’t work on policy. We have to stop him for a political donation he made… eight years ago. But what Hillary Clinton believed 10 years ago – she can evolve.”
As Stu explained, history shows President Obama’s ‘evolution’ is even more egregious, for he has flip-flopped multiple times on the issues.
“MRC went back to Hillary Clinton's 2000 quote,” Stu said. “But much more recent, I mean, Obama in 2008 when he ran for president was saying the exact opposite of this.”
While running for Illonois state Senate in 1996, President Obama had this to say about gay marriage: "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."
According to PoltiFact, the President had changed his tune just two years later, saying he is “undecided” on the issue.
In 2004, he further clarified his gay marriage stance: "I am a fierce supporter of domestic-partnership and civil-union laws. I am not a supporter of gay marriage as it has been thrown about, primarily just as a strategic issue. I think that marriage, in the minds of a lot of voters, has a religious connotation.”
“This one is amazing because I don't think I've ever heard it. It's as bad as Janet Napolitano's quote that we've talked about,” Stu said. “Do you ever remember hearing that quote? That's an amazing quote.”
While running for president in 2008, President Obama said: “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.”
Finally, in 2012 President Obama told ABC’s Robin Roberts he has been going through an evolution on this issue” and now supports gay marriage.
“He becomes pro-traditional marriage as he gets closer and closer to running for president. In 2008, he fully supports traditional marriage,” Stu said. “Then in 2012, he flip-flops completely almost exactly at the exact time that it is crossing the 50% support barrier. You want to talk about real leader: There you go.”
“How is it possible these guys aren't held accountable for this,” Pat asked exasperatedly. “This is clearly a political position for you. You've got no belief structure whatsoever on this point.”