The wrong question; or, how the federal government works.  I got an e-mail from Garden State Equality today.  They want me (and everyone else they sent the e-mail to) to go to their site and answer a one-question poll.  The one question?  "How would you assess the progress President Obama is making on LGBT civil rights?"  Since this is really too complex a question to be answered by a simple "good/bad" choice, you'd expect some sort of space for an open-ended answer.  However, what you're presented with are these two choices:

"He's doing well, given how hard it is to move things in Washington and especially compared to past Presidents."

"He's not fast and bold enough, and I worry that as time goes on, he'll have missed his best opportunity for change."

Now, back in February, I gave my own report card on how I thought the President had done in four major areas.  (The post is still there; I'll wait here if you want to go read it.)  I gave him a good grade in one area (immigration reform), a middling grade in two others (ENDA and "don't ask, don't tell") and a failing grade in one more (DOMA repeal).  So how could I choose between the two answers given in this poll?

And then it struck me.  Of the four areas, only one could be handled by Presidential action alone, and that one was immigration reform.  This was the lifting of the ban on immigration -- even on entering the country to visit -- for anyone who was HIV-positive.  This was one of Jesse Helms' brainchildren, and it couldn't die until the old fart himself kicked the bucket.  Once he did, the ban's days were numbered.

Of course, it took the President roughly a year to get his own Department of Homeland Security to dismantle the remaining pieces of the policy.  (And it took former President Bush roughly a year before that to get the ball rolling.)  But he did get it finished, and for that he deserves praise.

But the other three?  They're all up to Congress, not the President.

Yes, you heard me right.  The other three areas are all related to legislature passed by previous Congresses, so to fix or end them, Congress has to pass another law doing so.

Now, the Senate has had hearings on repealing "don't ask, don't tell", with common-sense testimony from the Secretary of Defense (a Republican holdover from the Bush Cabinet), the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and decorated gay veterans of our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  And the House looks set to start committee hearings on ENDA, now that both sides have agreed on the language of the proposed legislation.  So they're moving right along -- at least, as fast as either house of Congress is used to moving.

And the President is doing what he should be doing -- sitting back and letting the legislative branch of the government do its job.  With, of course, an occasional supportive comment.

So, back to GSE's poll.  For that stuff that the President can do, he's doing pretty well.  I'd like him to speak out more often in favor of ENDA, and repealing DOMA and DADT, and so would many more people, both gay and straight.  A little more use of the "bully pulpit" couldn't hurt, although the President can't rely on a solid base of supportive Democratic legislators in both houses, and his speaking out might not do as much good as it could, and might even hurt a little.  But all things considered, on this score I'd say he's doing well.

And for that stuff that only Congress can do?  They're coming along, but they're not fast and bold enough.  (Then again, Congress is rarely fast or bold, let alone both together.)  So if the question were also being asked about Congress, I'd go with option B (not fast or bold enough).

The results of both those polls would make for some interesting reading by our political leaders in Washington.