One of the lasting legacies of the George W. Bush presidency is that it severely lowered the bar on what we expect the president to know. Bush and mainly his primary handler, Karl Rove, made it generally acceptable for the chief executive to be no smarter than the great unwashed he's governing.

It would be foolish to tell African Americans not to be sensitive about race, to tell Jews not to be sensitive about religion or to tell Sikhs not to be sensitive about airport checks. Likewise, it is foolish for a straight, married man to tell lesbians and gay men not to be sensitive about marriage.