Vice President Biden's Comments On Gay Marriage Forces Obama To State His Views On Issue

No hard feelings, Joe!
Vice President Joe Biden's remarks on gay marriage forced President Obama to move up his announcement in support of same-sex couples’ rights. But the President insists he's not angry.
Obama told ABC's "Good Morning America" he had already made the decision to publicly support gay marriage before the Democratic National Convention in September.
But Biden jumped the gun on Sunday when he said he was "absolutely comfortable" with married same-sex couples being granted the same rights as heterosexuals.
"He probably got out a little over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit," Obama told the network in an interview that aired Thursday.
"Would I have preferred to have done this in my own way on my own terms without, I think, there being a lot of notice to everybody? Of course,” he said. “But all's well that ends well."
Obama became the first occupant of the White House to publicly back gay marriage on Wednesday. It came a day after North Carolina voters cast ballots in favor of adopting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples tying the knot in the state.
Now, 30 states have constitutional amendments or statutes prohibiting gay marriage.
When Obama ran for President four years ago, he said he backed civil unions but wouldn't support same-sex marriage.
During the ABC News interview, Obama stressed he believes the decision to legalize gay marriage should be up to individual states, which are "arriving at different conclusions at different times."
He also acknowledged that the politics of his announcement remained unclear.
Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney said Wednesday he believes "marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman" and that he will continue to hold "the same view on marriage that I had when I was a governor and I've stated many times."
"I think it'd be hard to argue somehow this is something I'd be doing for political advantage, because, frankly, the politics — it's not clear how they cut," said Obama.
"But I'm not going to be spending most of my time talking about this because frankly my job as President right now, my biggest priority, is growing the economy and making sure we put people back to work," he added.