Mayor Newsom creates a rhetorical situation

It is always interesting the night before “Super Tuesday” that people of power, those that have a voice in society and can mandate change, put themselves in the media spotlight in order to “take sides.” Mayor Gavin Newsom, the Mayor of San Francisco stands as the rhetor in this situation, creating and translating a text that he claims occurred between him and Obama, generating a situation that elicits a general response from the American public (namely the voters), as well as a negative response from the gay and lesbian community. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/05/BAM5US1B5.DTL

This whole controversy started as members of the gay community have been supporting Obama for years, at fund raisers and such, to then be “shunned”, coincidently refusing to take pictures with the gay Mayor Newsom after an event the gay supporters of San Francisco had worked very hard on. Not once, but twice.

There is an argument provided by the former Senator of San Francisco Willie Brown stating Obama told him “He would really appreciate if he didn’t get his photo taken with my mayor, with mayor Gavin.”

There is such a sense of resentment in this article, a feeling that Obama not only deserted them, but shunned them as a part of society that was no profitable to him, therefore a seemingly worthless effort.

It is also very suspicious on the part of the Mayor of San Francisco to come out with this discontentment of Obama the day leading into Super Tuesday, a day in which most voters understand to be ground breaking in politics as far as the Republican and Democratic nominees are concerned.
Mayor Gavin Newsom is acting towards the support of a gay audience, trying to influence their vote of Obama, making him sound like a fake and one whom is unsupportive of the entire gay community. The argument here is that Obama does not support gay rights, and what the public sees of any positive gay stance is all fake. Mayor Newsom states "I believe in his leadership qualities, and I look forward to voting for him," "In eight years."

The supporting reasons are held the texts exchanged back and forth from Obama and Gavin, as well as from the former Mayor of San Francisco, Mr. Willie Brown.

There is a clear strategy from the Hillary supporters on cable and satellite t.v. as well as the gay community that has sided with her. Mayor Newsom has even intentionally changed his vote to Hillary, shortly after this dialogue occurred. This snub looks to be the whole reason why Mayor Newsom has flipped to the Hillary side, and through Newsom’s discourse and rhetoric, it is clear that old wounds take time to heal. I do not believe Newsom has taken allegiance with Hillary Clinton as a “case of repayment of political favors.” This is a typical case of someone still holding pent-up resentment for a candidate’s personal “snub.” If the gay community sees this as well, he may not be as effective as he was trying to be. Who is to judge if this comment was personal or not, as is stated within the story, “Obama takes pictures with gay people all of the time.”