NP: John Cage, 4'33"

Since last week's online questioning of the president, the "should we legalize pot?" question has been, um, bubbling over. Andrew Sullivan -- quoting Joe Klein here -- has been very vocal about it, and here's Leonard Pitts, Jr. opining in the Miami Herald.

I'm sort of all over the place on this one. I think that any legalization of drugs crosses a line of moral conduct for many, many people that simply cannot be crossed. However, I think this is an entrenched cultural bias much the same way that same-sex marriage is. It's a taboo taken for granted, and while it may not hold up under scrutiny, there are those simply not willing to scrutinize, because to do so would be to question what they believe in, in a bigger sense. I suspect this sort of rigidity is more prevalent the further you get outside of major urban areas, which is why big-city bloggers can't figure out why it's such a big deal.

But I'm not either of those people, aside from the fact that I blog from a big city. Because of the nature of the resistance to the idea, I think President Obama was right to be dismissive of it, primarily as a tactical maneuver. A Democratic leader can't propose the legalization of drugs. Despite all of Sullivan's first-person accounts of harmless pot use, the public support is not as strong as he thinks it is, and it would still be such a huge political mistake for the president. As such, even if Obama believes that legalizing marijuana would fix the budget, it just can't be his idea.

However, caving to intense outside pressure, or waiting until you've hit an observable tipping point totally works. At least in theory. If it's a matter of having to do something quickly to save the sinking ship, I might revise my opinion.