What could be worse for him is that he not only lost, at least temporarily, independent voters as evidenced by the elections, and from the outset of his presidency he has been hammered by the right wing of the Republican Party (expected), but Obama is also allowing the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to slip away. Among them, LGBT folks, once huge supporters of the president, are disappointed and angry.

The latest struggle in dealing with the extension of the Bush tax cuts proved Obama has lost his hold on those very Democrats who pushed him over the top in 2008. He needs to get back his base. He needs to return to his core principles and his campaign promises. He needs to show some feistiness, some fight or he will be a one-term president.

One way to help fix that is a nationally televised speech from the Oval Office on the Senate’s failure to enact the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Although I am not a speechwriter, I suggest something along the following lines:

My Fellow Americans (note the “birthers” will already be snickering):

When I addressed Congress and the Nation during my State of the Union Address on January 27, I called for the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” I said, “This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It’s the right thing to do.”

I believed that then, and I still do. With many problems facing our country this year both at home and abroad, I focused on some immediate steps, such as reforming the health care system and doing whatever it takes to get our people back to work and our economy back on track. If I didn’t directly and aggressively push Congress on the repeal of the discriminatory policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” I do apologize, because it remains a high priority to me and my Administration.

In late May the House of Representatives did vote for the repeal of the law as did the Senate Armed Services Committee as part of a broader Defense Department spending measure.

However, key opponents of the law asked that a survey be undertaken of our troops to determine if the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would cause significant disruption to unit cohesion, readiness and effectiveness.

That survey commissioned by the Department of Defense and conducted by the Comprehensive Review Working Group has been completed and reported earlier this month. It found that a significant majority of those troops who responded said that they would have little or no problem serving alongside a service member who is gay or lesbian. In addition, more than 9 out of 10 who were aware of gay or lesbian troops in their unit did not oppose repeal.

The repeal of this law, which has accounted for nearly 14,000 discharges of qualified, patriotic service members—many with critical skills needed for our nation’s security—has been supported by Defense Secretary Gates; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen; members of the Joint Chiefs themselves, and countless current and former military leaders, such General Colin Powell. Moreover, a vast majority of fair-minded Americans, including a majority of conservatives, are in favor of overturning this law.

To my great disappointment, despite this mounting body of support for repeal as well as the evidence contained in the Comprehensive Review Working Group report, the Senate by 3 votes failed to vote on the bill. Another attempt for repeal is underway in Congress as a stand-alone measure.

All along, I firmly believed that since “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” needs to be repealed by legislative means. Since the 1993 law was put in place by Congress, it should be overturned by Congress.

However, as Commander-in-Chief, I see this discriminatory law harmful not only to our patriotic Americans who are willing to fight and die for our country, but it also impairs our efforts in the global war on terrorism and our defense in general.

Accordingly, I have decided to take the following steps should the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” not be accomplished during this Lame Duck session of Congress:

First, as Commander-in-Chief, I am empowered during a time of war to use the measure called stop-loss. As such, effective immediately, I order that no further discharges of gay or lesbian service members be permitted under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Second, I am instructing the Justice Department to stop appealing federal court cases challenging the constitutionality of the law as these cases make their way through the judicial system.

This country was founded on the principles of equality and justice for all. To discriminate against a class of people who are otherwise qualified to serve in our military runs counter to the values for which our men and women in uniform have fought and died throughout our history to defend.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has been a blemish on our nation, and as President of the United States, I am fulfilling my promise by ending it now and forever. Accordingly, we will now join the other 35 nations who allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in their armed forces. As I said in my State of the Union address, it is the right thing to do.

God bless you and God bless America.

• Contributed by Steve Charing and cross-posted at: Steve Charing OUTspoken!

According to a Time blog:

According to a post on ATL Boy:

With the midterm elections over, we now move full-tilt into 2012 campaign mode. The coming months will bring answers to tantalizing questions, like whether Sarah Palin will run for president (most likely) and whether President Obama will replace Joe Biden on the ticket with Hillary Clinton (less likely). More critical is the question of whether Obama will face competition from within his own party or from a third-party candidate like Michael Bloomberg.

More here!

According to a post on indianexpress.com:

It takes a special genius in politics to be assailed by both sides of an argument and receive no credit at all for standing in the middle. That is the position into which Barack Obama appears needlessly to have manoeuvred himself on gay rights.

Read more here!

According to a post on Metro Weekly:

I get the idea that Obama wants an orderly process. Despite our command of majority opinion on the issue, the small and vocal minority that opposes equality brings the same misguided passion that they bring to every social issue, guaranteeing that they will fight loudly until the bitter end.

Read more here!

If anyone thought that racism was dead in this country, they were dead wrong and you can see it ever so clearly now more than ever.  Let’s think about it for a minute.  Why else would anyone not want their child to listen to a Presidential address about the importance of education?  Pure racism.  As much as I thought (and still do think) George W. is a complete idiot, I still think that he, as the president, could possibly reach our youth while speaking about the importance of education.

Since racism has hit an all-time high for the past few decades that simply means that those of us who don’t subscribe to racist views have to do our part, really step up to the plate and fight against this illness that’s been sweeping the nation with help from many of the right wing pundits.

According to a post at The Rev. Chuck Currie:

Obviously, we must speak out against racism and against those who would seek to use race or religion to divide the American people.  Such means to achieve political ends cannot be tolerated.

The test that we face in the face of such hatred and racism is how we respond.  Christians must always we concerned not just with justice but also for the need for reconciliation because justice is just a far off dream if we remain divided.

Read the entire post here! (Warning – The referenced post contains some very disturbing racist comments.)

According to a post on Corey’s View:

Perhaps most disturbing is the President’s backpedaling on his campaign assurance that “If you get a Federal grant you can’t use that money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them or the people you hire on the basis of their religion.”

More at: Corey’s View!

According to the lead singer, “I don’t know why our second record was so stupid”.

Check it out!

There’s a great post by Alvin McEwen on his blog Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters that does a great job of pointing out just how stupid it’s become.

According to the post:

And if Focus on the Family and these other religious right groups even cared about “family” or “reality,” they would support all family units, not just the one they think are superior.

One would think that an organization with the word “family” in its name would be more concerned with doing this rather than trying to create a caste system.

Read more and watch the amazingly stupid video here!

According to a post by James Withers on 365gay.com:

When it comes to gay rights, Barack Obama is an incrementalist. Nibble around the edges. Talk to the opposition. Never get too ahead of where people are. We can argue if this the best path or even sustainable, but it is how Obama is going to handle concerns that are important to the LGBT community.

Read more here!