Here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD we are prostrate with admiration! President Obama’s sudden reversal of opinion on gay marriage was, by any measure, an incredibly gutsy thing to do.

Of course, the fact that he had publicly opposed gay marriage since running for the Senate in Illinois, but now found himself estranged from elite opinion within his own party, could not possibly have affected his attitude. This is a president who says what he thinks, lets the chips fall where they may, follows his instincts, pushes the envelope, thinks outside the box, and never lets anything like politics harm the machinery of his conscience. His views have been slowly but inexorably “evolving” on the issue of gay marriage, and it is highly unlikely that today’s announcement was prompted by external events, such as yesterday’s gay marriage referendum in North Carolina.