Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama, Race and Civil Rights
Bill Clinton earned the name "The Comeback Kid" for his ability to win impressive legislative and public relations victories after suffering humiliating defeats.
Now President Barack Obama is showing the same ability.
After humbling losses by his party in the November elections and earning his lowest voter approval ratings of his term just months ago, Obama crafted a compromise on tax reduction legislation that earned a few groans from his party faithful but won applause from most.
And Wednesday night, Obama won another victory, when he signed a new law that will allow gays to serve openly in America's armed forces for the first time.
Obama made good on a campaign pledge he made to opponents of the 1993 "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law passed under Clinton that forced gays to hide their sexual orientation.
About 1,300 soldiers were put out of the armed services under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Obama successfully framed the new law's passage as a civil rights issue over objections raised primarily by Republicans, but some in the military question whether the new legislation will erode troop cohesiveness.
Only time will tell whether Obama was a reasonable pragmatist or a naive dreamer in pushing for the new law.
I'm sure there will be a few servicemen or servicewomen who will come forward to say they felt sexually threatened or harassed by a gay colleague. That will send the anti-gay minded into a tizzy.
They will say it's simply not possible for a straight solider and an openly gay soldier to work together in close quarters.
And they may ultimately be proven right, though I doubt it.
The sense of teamwork among soldiers, especially in the life and death situations our forces find themselves in during battle, is not something to toy with. Lives lie in the balance.
If soldiers, straight or gay, act with the professionalism we expect, everything should turn out fine.
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