Part I: Obama's political decision for gay marriage.

Since Obama made his "surprise" announcement, his decision has received the most coverage of any single Obama event.  The following list is my evidence:

The Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, Politico, Wall Street Journal, Rush Limbaugh, GayPatriot,americanthinker.com, New Yorker, ABCNEWS, The Hill, White House.gov Blog, CNN, NO QUARTER,Weasel Zippers, American Prospect, Freedom to Marry Blog, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Gay Politics,Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer, PoliticusUSA, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Public Discourse, SEIU.org, Truthdig,DownWithTyranny!, The Reaction, slacktivist, Campaign Stops, Outside the Beltway, TIME Ideas, New York Times, Poynter, Politicker, Washington Post, Mother Jones, TVNewser, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion,Weekly Standard, The Democratic Daily, Washington Wire, Eclectablog, Newsy, Campaign 2012, his vorpal sword, The BRAD BLOG, Prop 8 Trial Tracker, Business Insider, ACS Blog, Crooks and Liars,DISSENTING JUSTICE, Firedoglake, Guardian, Stinque, Boing Boing, Patterico's Pontifications, Mother Jones, Gay Politics, Taylor Marsh, Liberal Values, Midwest Voices, ThinkProgress, RedState, Instapundit,Alas, a Blog, Blue Mass Group, JustOneMinute, National Review, Gawker, New York Magazine, Rod Dreher, Indecision Forever, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Shakesville, Hot Air, BuzzFeed, The Caucus andWake up America

More than the coverage,  90 million dollars have come into Obama's campaign coffers in the past 24 hours.  Correction:  $1 million was raised in the first 90 minutes following the announcement.  But the long term benefit is not yet known.  Few see Obama's decision to suddenly support gay marriage as a big surprise.  In fact,  the claim that "his position is just like ours,"  as echoed by Sean Hannity and other conservative commentators,  has been a source of irritation to me,  for years.  The fact remains that the nation is evenly divided on the issue. Obama, as a politician,  has always been a closet gay supporter.  30 of the 50 states have anti gay marriage laws and, more importantly,  7 of the 13 swing states, also,  have anti gay marriage laws on the books.  North Carolina,  one of those swing states,  passed its anti gay marriage law on Tuesday (May 8) by a 60% affrimative vote. North Carolina supported Obama in 2008 by a margin  of 14,000 votes.

So,  while the buzz will be rather involved,  its impact will not be a game changer,  in my humble opinion.  Understand that this coming election is a referendum of Obama's presidency,  not a vote for a politician with new ideas and a revived rhetorical standard.  Second term elections are always referendum elections.

Try as he may,  Obama is not going to be able to escape his record.