As homosexual marriage winds its way through the judicial system, President Barack Obama is likely to go down in history as a champion of gay rights, as the first president to endorse gay marriage. In reality, Obama’s position on gay marriage was cynical and calculated to maximize political results.

Obama, famously, came out in favor of gay marriage in 2012 during his re-election campaign. Before that, and during the 2008 election, as Andrew Johnson at NRO ably demonstrates, he opposed the idea, largely on religious grounds. So, what happened in 2012? As The Washington Post notes here, that was the first year that polls showed slightly more support for gay marriage instead of opposition. Obama’s shift was not accidental.

David Axelrod, Obama’s close aid and campaign manager, has written a book, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics. In it, Axelrod makes it clear that Obama supported gay marriage during his first campaign for the presidency and that he was tired of pretending to oppose it. President Obama did not evolve on the issue, he simply decided to reveal his true beliefs when they were politically convenient. As Charles C.W. Cooke says, at least as it related to gay marriage, Obama was far from courageous. He was unwilling to confront the American people on the issue when he disagreed with them. Instead, he put his wet finger in the air and pondered which way the breeze was blowing.

Attacks against Obama built on Axelrod’s book must have drawn blood because yesterday, the President publicly disagreed with Axelrod’s assertion. To protect his image, he will spin this as a misunderstanding or on Axelrod’s flawed memory.