David Axelrod may have opened a can of worms for his former boss, Barack Obama, when he revealed in his new book that:

…he knew Obama was in favor of same-sex marriages during the first presidential campaign, even as Obama publicly said he only supported civil unions, not full marriages. Axelrod also admits to counseling Obama to conceal that position for political reasons. “Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church, and as he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a ‘sacred union,’ ” Axelrod writes.

Here is what Obama actually said in 2004:

What I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it’s not simply the two persons who are meeting.” 

He repeated this declaration of faith in the 2008 campaign:

“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian–for me–for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”

Now that he has reversed himself on same sex marriage, he is attempting the Mario Cuomo dodge, declaring that his private beliefs may be sincere, but as a politician he would not “force” his beliefs on others. He told Buzzfeed:

“I think David is mixing up my personal feelings with my position on the issue,” Obama said. “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.”

The only problem is that Obama in his two presidential elections made the claim that his “Christian faith” was guiding his policies.

 Joel Pollak of Breitbart argues:

 Obama did not just pretend to oppose a controversial position. He pretended to hold that view as a matter of his Christian faith.

He lied about his most sincere religious convictions–and much of his senior staff lied along with him.

But others argue that, with the support of the media, Obama will skate, as he has with so many lies. David Harsanyi of The Federalist notes:

…if David Axelrod is telling the truth – and it seems to me, the purpose of this story is to let us know that the president was always enlightened – what are we to make of the long-winded fairy tale about how his daughters helped him see the light to ABC’s Robin Roberts in 2012? What we learn is that president is pretty big BSer, but not a very good liar. Not that anyone seems to be too concerned.

And Scott Johnson of Powerline calls Obama “The LeBron James of BS.”

For me, this confirms that Barack Obama will lie about anything, so long as he sees a political benefit. But that is hardly news.