As anticipated, the Obama Administration is making noise about dismantling the military "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy toward gays. His press secretary confirmed that he wants to go to Congress to repeal the policy, but won't do so until late 2009 or 2010.
Ultimately, it won't work.
I think it will actually drive more gays out of the military and lead President Obama to hastily restore the policy--in it's current form. There are many who wouldn't mind seeing this happen.
President Clinton beat a hasty retreat on this issue and never returned to it. I think history will repeat itself with President Obama once he takes a measure of how the military feels about this issue, and how the public feels about it. In fact, he's already delayed looking at this issue until 2010.
I'm not sure that the Democrats in Congress will want to risk alienating their constituents, who have shown that they may vote their own way on issues related to gay rights, regardless of party label. Look at California and their Proposal 8 controversy. I knew that proposal would pass; voters don't like being told what to do and having the power of their votes taken away by activist judges.
Even though the Democrats control the government, I think this will be an uphill battle for them, should they choose to try. And at this stage, I'm not sure they want to go on record with their vote.
And even if they do succeed, how long will it last?
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