Axelrod: Obama Lied About His Opposition to Gay Marriage in 2008

President BarackObama misled the country during his first campaign for president when he said he opposed gay marriage, former key adviser David Axelrod said in his new book, "Believer: My Forty Years in Politics."

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

“I’m just not very good at bulls**tting,” Obama told Axelrod about his stated opposition to same-sex marriage, according to a portion of the book reported in Time.

Axelrod said Obama personally favored gay marriage during his first presidential campaign, but felt he had to publicly say he was opposed and only supported civil unions.

“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,’ ” Axelrod wrote.

Obama finally announced his support for gay marriage during his 2012 re-election campaign, saying he'd undergone an "evolution" on the issue.

“Having prided himself on forthrightness, though, Obama never felt comfortable with his compromise and, no doubt, compromised position,” Axelrod wrote. “He routinely stumbled over the question when it came up in debates or interviews.”

(H/T: Time)