President Barack Obama lied to Americans for his own political benefit when he said in 2008 that he opposed gay marriage for religious reasons, according to his former political strategist David Axelrod.
"I'm just not good at bullshitting," Obama admitted to Axelrod following a campaign event in which he claimed he opposed same-sex marriages, the strategist wrote in his new book, reported Time.
Even though Obama publicly opposed gay marriage during his first presidential campaign, Axelrod said he knew Obama was actually for same-sex marriage but personally counseled the president to lie about his true beliefs for political reasons.
"Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church, and as he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a 'sacred union,' " wrote Axelrod in his book, "Believer: My Forty Years in Politics."
During his 1996 run for state senate, Obama filled out a questionnaire saying that he favors "legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages," reported Politico.
But 12 years later, as a presidential candidate, Obama had, at least publicly, flipped his stance, telling Rick Warren's Saddleback Church that he believes that "marriage is the union between a man and a woman."
"Now, for me as a Christian - for me - for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God's in the mix," Obama said.
After two years in the White House, Obama began telling reporters that his views were "evolving" on the issue. It was only after Vice President Joe Biden voiced his support for same-sex unions that Obama came out publicly in support, even as his campaign manager advised that doing so could cost him the state of North Carolina, Time reported.
