Celebrate Recovery

White Evangelicals were the hardest constituency for Obama to reach.

But he was nevertheless elected, because of his economic populism (of which there is a very rich tradition among white Evangelicals) and because of his foreign policy realism (likewise, and indeed increasingly), by the same people who reaffirmed traditional marriage in California and Florida, who abolished legal discrimination against working-class white men in Colorado, and who declined to liberalise gambling in Missouri or Ohio. The clear majority of Catholics, and practically the entire black church, voted for Obama.

However, Obama has since alienated that constituency of economically populist, morally and socially conservative foreign policy realists, most obviously by nominating Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. The astonishing run-off ballot for the Senate seat in Georgia has therefore been lost, and with it the possibility of a filibuster-proof majority.

Set against this background, the decision to invite Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at President Obama's inauguration is inspired, even brilliant. For all the bluster to the contrary from certain quarters, Obama's support for civil partnerships but opposition to same-sex "marriage", specifically on religious grounds, is practically indistinguishable from Warren's own position.

And traditional marriage has historically been a condition of admission to the Union: Utah could not become a state until the Mormons gave up polygamy. Judges in California should bear that in mind when deciding whether or not to annul the same-sex "marriages" contracted before the success of Proposition Eight. Failure to do so would be perilously close to secession.