It’s been a while, but today President Obama did something progressives will like. He stopped pondering, or pretending to ponder, his stance on marriage equality, telling ABC News’s Robin Roberts:

I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married

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In one fell swoop, he capitalizes on widespread disgust with North Carolina’s constitutional amendment prohibiting same sex marriage, reconnects with disappointed progressives, and forthrightly claims the moral high ground. No more half assed support for civil unions or domestic partnerships. And of course, he can’t possibly object to dominating the news cycle, shutting down ridiculous GOP attempts to turn Osama Bin Laden’s death into a negative for him, and Mittens’s bizarre efforts to take credit for the auto industry’s come back, despite his vocal opposition to the bail out that saved it.

I don’t think I’ve been this excited about Obama since his inauguration. Remember Beyonce singing At Last while he and Michelle danced?? Before all the compromises and disappointments? This doesn’t quite make up for ditching the public option, or Rahm Emanuel, but it’s a start.