Noah first brought up the stunning (by which I mean completely not stunning) news from David Axelrod’s new book in which the former senior advisor claims that Obama basically lied about his position on gay marriage to appease religious voters. Allahpundit put some frosting on the cake, recalling some of O’s greatest hits from 2004 on the subject, wherein he went on at great length about how important the tradition of marriage before God is and why it wasn’t appropriate for same sex couples. Well, the President has had time to read the Ax Man’s claims, and he wants you to know that you’ve got it all wrong.

The president said David Axelrod, his former senior adviser, was “mixing up my personal feelings with my position on the issue” when he said Obama publicly backed civil unions rather than gay marriage because it was more politically palatable. “I always felt that same-sex couples should be able to enjoy the same rights, legally, as anybody else and so it was frustrating to me not to, I think, be able to square that with what were a whole bunch of religious sensitivities out there,” Obama said in an interview with BuzzFeed. The president said he sincerely felt that civil unions were “a sufficient way of squaring the circle,” but learned over time that gay couples felt they were stigmatized by being denied full access to marriage. “I think the notion that somehow I was always in favor of marriage per se isn’t quite accurate,” Obama said.

As attempted denials go, this one is about as lame as they come. It’s hard to even know where to begin here, but the President’s own words indicate the depths he’s having to sink to after Axelrod painted him into this corner. First of all, how can someone mix up your personal feelings with your position on an issue? Does this mean that you take positions which are contrary to your personal feelings? And more to the point, you apparently do so without letting the rest of us in on this internal conflict? That’s nonsensical.

Second, Obama seems to let the cat out of the bag in the next comments he makes. If those were his own deeply held feelings (pre-evolution) which he was expressing, why would he talk about a whole bunch of religious sensitivities out there? Why were the religious sensitivities “out there” instead of in his own heart? If this were a game of poker, that comment would be a tell.

And finally, how stupid does the man think we are when he says that he had to “learn over time” that gay couples felt they were stigmatized by a lack of ability to marry? Why did he think there was a huge debate going on over gay marriage? Someone running for President really shouldn’t have been allowed on the debate stage if they honestly thought that all those gay couples with their rainbow flags were marching in the streets hoping that somebody would just send them a referral to a good lawyer who could draw up a property division contract for them. The President knew what this debate was about and he knew what the activists wanted. He just didn’t want to come out in favor of what he actually believed because he knew it would cost him some votes.

I’d almost have had more respect for the guy if he’d come out to the podium after the news broke, winked at the cameras and said, “Yeah… but it sure worked, didn’t it?”