President Obama, please lead on marriage equality and marijuana

Vice President Joe Biden has come out in full support of marriage equality for gays and lesbians in the U.S. Good for him! In an interview Vice President Biden stated:

"I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that. [...] I think Will & Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has done so far. People fear that is different and now they’re beginning to understand."

Now, why isn't President Obama not supporting marriage equality? Why isn't he supporting state medical marijuana laws? Why does Democratic House Minority Leader (and former Speaker of the House of Representatives) Nancy Pelosi have to urge him to respect the rights of states (and their citizens) to use prescribed medical marijuana?

Now, President Obama is still better than Romney when it comes to curbing the abuses of the Drug War. But, he is behind not only majority opinion in his own party on this issue, but Americans overall. Most Americans support medical marijuana and about 1/2 support legalizing marijuana itself.

If President Obama wants the support of progressives in 2012, he should start acting like one.