COUNTDOWN ELECTION 2012

Faint Praise: Log Cabin Republicans Give Romney Eleventh-Hour Endorsement

The Log Cabin Republicans must have felt bad about Mitt Romney tanking at last’s night debate: This morning, after months of stalling, the gay GOP groups finally gave Romney a “qualified endorsement.”

GOProud, the other leading gay conservative cabal, rushed to endorse Mitt some months ago, but there was speculation LCR might stay silent during this campaign. Log Cabin has only withheld endorsing a Republican presidential candidate twice—once in 1992 when it snubbed George H.W. Bush, and again in 2004 when it passed on giving George W. Bush the thumbs up because of his support for a federal gay-marriage ban.

While the organization claims it understands the importance of gay rights, LCR leaders says their siding with Romney because it sees the economy as the most pressing issue in the election:

We believe that President Obama has broken his promises to our country. Rather than focusing on job creation, he pushed through an extremely partisan, expensive and intrusive healthcare bill, presided over a United States credit downgrade, and has made no credible attempt to cut spending as our national debt has topped $16 trillion. Our nation is in a financial crisis, and we are in desperate need of a change in course.

If LGBT issues are a voter’s highest or only priority, then Governor Romney may not be that voter’s choice. However, Log Cabin Republicans is an organization representing multifaceted individuals with diverse priorities. Having closely reviewed the candidate’s history and observed the campaign, we believe Governor Romney will make cutting spending and job creation his priorities, and, as his record as Governor of Massachusetts suggests, will not waste his precious time in office with legislative attacks on LGBT Americans.

Tellingly, the endorsement dismisses a pledge from the National Organization of Marriage that Romney signed as “merely symbolic.” But politicians who take that pledge endorse passing a federal marriage amendment, reaffirming the Defense of Marriage Act, nominating anti-equality judges and creating a presidential commission on religious liberty.

Sounds a little more than symbolic.

 

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