President Barack Obama's wobbly gay marriage stance is slammed in a just-published The New Republic op-ed.

The editorial, written by executive editor Richard Just, takes aim at Obama for his lukewarm support of the institution.

Just begins with some historical context, comparing President Woodrow Wilson's halfhearted support for women's suffrage to Obama's lackluster record on gay marriage.

Wilson dodged the issue by insisting that it was “not a question that is dealt with by the national government at all.”

“An evasive stance on a controversial civil rights issue from a liberal president; an insistence that the issue is primarily local, rather than national, in character; a complete failure of sincerity, nerve, and will: If these things sound familiar in 2010, it is because Barack Obama is taking exactly the same approach on gay marriage,” Just writes.

Obama has wrapped himself around the issue like a pretzel. He's gone from endorsing the legalization of gay marriage in 1996 to opposing “mean spirited” constitutional efforts to ban it.

“What the timeline shows is a pattern that can only be described as illogical and cynical.”

“Obama appears to be saying that it is fine to prohibit gay people from getting married, as long as the vehicle for doing so is not a constitution.”

Just calls Obama's reasoning for supporting civil unions for gay couples over marriage nonsensical.

“Obama has also said he favors civil unions rather than gay marriage because the question of where and how to apply the label 'marriage' is a religious one. This argument makes even less sense than his stance on state constitutions, since marriage, for better or for worse, is very much a government matter.”

In the end, Just returns to Wilson, who eventually endorsed the nineteenth amendment, arguing that Obama should take heed of his predecessor’s stumble on women's suffrage.

“[H]istory does not look kindly on this type of presidential conduct. Wilson is today remembered as a near-great president, but his indifference on questions of gender and race is more than a bit unflattering in retrospect.”

“[O]bama's stance seems to be a way of conveying to the country that he knows a lot of people still aren't completely comfortable admitting gays and lesbians as full participants in American life, and that this is OK because he isn't either. It is about the most cynical gesture you can imagine from an allegedly liberal leader – and we deserve better. I am speaking to you as an American, Mr. Obama.”