Barack Obama wants to carry the states he won in 2008, when he was still the blank slate that voters wrote on. One of those states is North Carolina, the hand-picked site of his party’s convention, which on May 8 passed a constitutional amendment against gay marriage, as other swing states had done before.

But Obama wants even more to reap millions from his wealthy gay backers, who, weary of his hesitations on the gay marriage issue, were becoming tightfisted of late. Thus it was that on May 9, Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage (though not to the point that he would promise to put it in his party’s platform or try to force it on states). In the eyes of the press, he “evolved” in good order, having done what the press wanted, but another interpretation is that he caved under pressure, or flipped.