In David Axelrod's new book, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics, he describes President Obama's flip-flopping in his stance on gay marriage.
Axelrod, a former political strategist to Obama, writes that when Obama stated his opposition to same-sex marriage in 2008, he may have been lying for political gain. Obama apparently told Axelrod, "I'm just not very good at bullshitting," after a 2008 campaign event when he spoke against gay marriage.
According to Axelrod, Obama supported same-sex marriage during his first presidential campaign, but Axelrod advised him not to reveal his stance, because "opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church." Axelrod adds that Obama was uncomfortable with the political "compromise," and he "routinely stumbled over the question when it came up in debates or interviews."
Time notes that when he ran for state senate in 1996, Obama said he wanted to legalize same-sex marriage, but in 2008, he said that "marriage is the union between a man and a woman" in his opinion "as a Christian."
During Obama's second presidential campaign, he announced his support for gay marriage, saying he had "evolved."