What's so vexing about this whole Miss California story is that while it appears to be almost the very definition of "infotainment," it actually contains within it one of the more important topics in our current discourse. It's almost like we've become so stupid as a nation that the only way we can really bring the debate about gay marriage to the center of public consciousness is through the vacuous rantings of an android made from bleach and silicon. And while iconic portraitist Perez Hilton and perpetual cynosure Donald Trump only are the thumbs on the fluff side of the scale here, even the revelation that she posed for boobie pictures can't obscure the fact that there's a larger issue in play. Thank God a serious public figure has finally weighed in.

Alaska governor/soon-to-be published author/America's most famous former beauty pageant contestant Sarah Palin issued a statement to a world desperately waiting for her moral clarity which says in part that, "What I find so remarkable is that these politically-motivated attacks fail to show that what Carrie and I believe is also what President Obama and Secretary Clinton believe — marriage is between a man and a woman. Our Constitution protects us all — not just those who agree with the far left." Let's ignore the fact that this is one more example of Palin's tragic misunderstanding of the Constitution and its protections-and that it's kind of easy to think of one group who lack certain protections right now-and get to her point about Obama, which seems to be the new standard Republican line on gay marriage.

Does he believe that "marriage" is really a right reserved for the union between a man and a woman? I know a lot of people who voted for him harbor the suspicion that he said what he had to say to take the issue off the table and get himself elected. I'm one of them. But then again I'm someone whose own biases are such that I have a hard time accepting that any politician I consider intelligent actually believes in God; I think it's another concession made to win office. But I'm perfectly aware that I could be wrong about that; unlike the existence of God, there's a preponderance of evidence suggesting that Obama believes in one.

Anyway, so what? Andrew Sullivan wrote a deeply personal and rather powerful attack on the administration's policy yesterday. Here's a sample:

Here we are, in the summer of 2009, with gay servicemembers still being fired for the fact of their orientation. Here we are, with marriage rights spreading through the country and world and a president who cannot bring himself even to acknowledge these breakthroughs in civil rights, and having no plan in any distant future to do anything about it at a federal level. Here I am, facing a looming deadline to be forced to leave my American husband for good, and relocate abroad because the HIV travel and immigration ban remains in force and I have slowly run out of options (unlike most non-Americans with HIV who have no options at all).

And what is Obama doing about any of these things? What is he even intending at some point to do about these things? So far as I can read the administration, the answer is: nada. We're firing Arab linguists? So sorry. We won't recognize in any way a tiny minority of legally married couples in several states because they're, ugh, gay? We had no idea. There's a ban on HIV-positive tourists and immigrants? Really? Thanks for letting us know.

Look, I get the politics of it. I understand that the President's got a ton of stuff on his plate right now and that he needs to muster all the political capital he has just to put in place the important structural and policy changes that will help fix the economy and expand health care and all the rest of it. But at what point do you decide that civil rights are the lesser priority? How long do you tell people they've got to wait for equality? The message coming from the White House that says "be patient, it'll happen eventually" is starting to sound uncomfortably similar to the Southern rhetoric of the 40's and 50's insisting that if all those damned outside agitators would mind their own business eventually the South would come around to letting everyone vote and share water fountains.

I don't know, this whole thing just got weirdly earnest. But here it is: Barring complete economic collapse and terrorists taking down another tower, the Democrats are going to maintain control of both chambers in 2010 no matter how much the gay issue galvanizes the remaining rump of "values voters." Sure, it'll probably cost the party a couple of congressmen, but Americans have bigger concerns these days. In 2012 the President will be up for re-election; do you really think that's the year he's going to want to make an issue out of this? The time to do it is now, so that in four years it will be almost quaint to look back at a time when we fired highly qualified military personnel because they liked dudes, or worried that Adam and Steven (hahaha, get it?) might shake the centuries-old foundation of marriage because who can compete with a gay wedding reception? I mean, those folks know how to throw a party.

But anyway, yeah, Miss California. Some story, right? I hope we get to see more naked pictures. They totally take my mind off of everything else.