How Long Can The President Ignore Reality?

A new ABC News/Washington Times poll shows that 81% of the public now wants to legalize marijuana for medicinal use, and nearly half (46%) believe it should be decriminalized, including over half of all people under the age of 65. The trend lines of public opinion is clear: the war on drugs is a failure. Let's go back to the president's take on legalizing marijuana, from a March online townhall meeting in which legalization was the number one issue people wanted the president to address:

OBAMA: Can I just interrupt, Jared, before you ask the next question, just to say that we -- we took votes about which questions were going to be asked and I think 3 million people voted or --

DR. BERNSTEIN: Three point five million.

OBAMA: Three point five million people voted. I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy -- (laughter) -- and job creation. And I don't know what this says about the online audience -- (laughter) -- but I just want -- I don't want people to think that -- this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy -- (laughter) -- to grow our economy. (Applause.)

The president chose to condescendingly ignore the overwhelming evidence that the war on drugs is immoral and doesn't work, and is in fact a total disaster, and simply dismiss the straw horse argument that legalizing marijuana would improve the economy. (By the way, it would, but it's far down the list of reasons to decriminalize pot.)

But how long can he continue to dismiss these arguments, when nearly half the nation wants pot legalized, and when that number is steadily climbing upwards?

It's time for the Democratic Party to get out in front of this issue.