But whether it's before or after 2012, Obama will eventually declare support for legalized gay marriage. Of course, it's always possible that he won't get reelected, and that he'll come out for it as an ex-president. If so, he'll ultimately end up claiming that it was one of his regrets, because he would have squandered the chance to declare support for it as a sitting president, something that would go down as an immensely powerful watershed moment in American history.