Dick Cheney doesn't get points for defending his daughter's right to create a secure and committed family life of her own. That's part of being a dad, loving and supporting your kids and wanting what's best for them. This doesn't make him liberal, nor does it place him to the left of Barack Obama, by any means. To suggest so is nothing but malarkey. It simply reveals his humanity, proving his most avid critics were wrong – he's not Darth Vader after all.

But he's no Jimmy Stewart, either. His tolerance comes a day late and a dollar short, and only serves to demonstrate the lack of sincerity with which politicians are willing to kowtow to the vanities, fears, and prejudices of voters for the sake of wealth and power.

Let's face it, today's Republicans wouldn't have a house of freaks to call a party without the likes of philistines and nativists, racist rednecks and gun enthusiasts, and self-exalted religious fundamentalists. The Bush-Cheney administration had no qualms about appealing to the collective insipidity of this constituency of dupes. For eight years the Vice President was willing to not defend the dignity of his own daughter's domestic partnership in order to feign solidarity with the banality and stone-age religiosity that have pervaded American social conservatism.

Barack Obama doesn't have a gay son or lesbian daughter to protect from the harm and discrimination of bigotry and ignorance. Yet, he issued a proclamation declaring June as National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. “I am proud to be the first president to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of my administration,” he wrote.

Additionally, he has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, he has joined forces with the United Nations to combat the criminalization of homosexuality worldwide. And domestically has pledged to support measures “that bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans.”

The President is sophisticated enough to put aside his personal feelings because he understands that inequity for the LGBT community is disparaging to us all, whether we realize it or not. “If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our nation was founded,” he said, “every American will benefit . . . I call upon . . . Congress and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity . . . . I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.”

This speaks directly to the core difference between the current and previous administrations. Altruism v. greedy self-interest.

Better late than never, but it sounds to me like he's still not willing to extend full faith and credit, as the federal constitution requires.