Apparently President Obama's opposition to same-sex marriage was "bullshit." Here's why that matters

Now, thanks to a new book by longtime Obama confidant David Axelrod, we know definitively that Obama lied to the American public about his beliefs on same-sex marriage. As Time first reported, Axelrod details in his book Believer: My Forty Years In Politics how Obama really felt about gay marriage during his first term: [I]f Obama's views were "evolving" publicly [in 2010 and 2011], they were fully evolved behind closed doors. The president was champing at the bit to announce his support for the right of gay and lesbian couples to wed — and having watched him struggle with this issue for years, I was ready too. Jim Messina, the campaign manager, was nervous about the impact of such a step. "We've looked at this and it could cost you a couple of battleground states; North Carolina, for one," he said. By year's end, however, Obama was no longer interested in analysis. "I just want you guys to know that if a smart reporter asks me how I would vote on this if I were still in the state legislature, I'm going to tell the truth. I would vote yes." + Axelrod writes that Obama "routinely stumbled over the question when it came up in debates or interviews." The president is quoted as saying "I'm just not very good at bullshitting" after one such incident. + This is a big problem, writes Mic politics editor Stefan Becket: "Compromises that were necessary to pass the Affordable Care Act and tougher Wall Street regulation are often criticized by liberals as unnecessary concessions ... Gay marriage is different. On no other issue was Obama so needlessly and deliberately misleading in his public pronouncements."