HRC endorses Obama for re-election; message: open the gAyTM and get with the program

Washington Blade (the full endorsement here:

"President Obama has improved the lives of LGBT Americans more than any president in history," Solmonese. "In 2008 we were promised change and profound change is what we got. More remains to be done and ensuring that President Obama is able to continue the forward momentum toward equality for another term is an absolute priority of the Human Rights Campaign."

...Alec Gerlach, spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said the HRC endorsement demonstrates the support that Obama has offered the LGBT community.

"That the Human Rights Campaign offered such an early endorsement is a clear sign that the president has fought for LGBT rights across the country and in our nation's military," Gerlach said. "We will work closely within the LGBT community in the months to come to ensure that we are united in the cause to re-elect the president and to ensure equality for gay and transgendered Americans. The president believes that DOMA is discriminatory and unfair, and because the fight for equality affects us all he will not support it."

Again, this illustrates that if HRC is on board, the assumption is that entire LGBT community is stepping in line by default. Is it "Groundhog Day", a case of waking up and starting the same day over and over with these folks? HRC no more controls the community than blogs do, as we've seen before, it's just that the institutions seek credibility through our Beltway orgs.

Also, hat is the point of doing this now? I don't recall HRC endorsing in the primaries when it was Hillary vs. Obama, for instance. And how about Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger, is he a non-starter? It just seems odd for an allegedly non partisan org. The reaction from Jimmy LaSalvia of GOProud, the release titled "HRC Officially Ends Charade of "Bipartisanship" with Pre-emptive Obama Endorsement":

"Today, the Human Rights Campaign chose to endorse Barack Obama's re-election even though the field running for President in 2012 isn't even set yet.  This pre-emptive endorsement ends HRC's charade of bipartisanship.

"LGBT people who are interested in putting policy before partisanship now know that HRC is little more than a puppet of the Democratic National Committee and an organization that has one goal - to elect more Democrats."

He's right on the latter point, however, the flip side of the coin is that pro-LGBT or even neutral Republicans aren't exactly breaking down the door for the LGBT vote either. Thoughts?