For President Barack Obama and his team, the decision to back gay marriage came down to a choice between two unpalatable alternatives: Support it and brave the backlash in battleground states where the issue could be a liability — or keep silent and be accused by allies of gutlessness and putting politics over principle. 
 
 Administration officials said the president planned to announce his support before the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., this September. But they acknowledge that Vice President Joe Biden did, indeed, force their hand. 
 
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 The claims about timing contradict senior Democrats and some Obama campaign officials who have said that Obama was undecided about making an announcement before the election to avoid losing religiously conservative swing voters in states like North Carolina, Ohio and Colorado. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Pols cheer, knock gay marriage news) 
 
 Obama’s famous “evolution” on the issue ended about three months ago, they say, after Obama pondered the courage of New York state lawmakers in passing their marriage equality law. This, even though the New York action happened six months before. 
 
 Senior officials, speaking under the ground rules of not providing direct quotations, said the political impact of the decision was entirely unpredictable, but that the issue isn’t likely to be a major factor in November’s general election result. 
 
 They also said most voters already assume Obama supports gay and lesbian nuptials, blunting the impact of the decision. 
 
 They refused to answer detailed questions about the specifics of Obama’s deliberations — or how he overcame his religious concerns, as a Christian, with gay marriage. Around a half-dozen top Obama advisers have been deliberating the timing of making the announcement and planned to do it over the summer. 
 
 (PHOTOS: Celebrity tweets on gay marriage) 
 
 In the end, people close to the president say, it wasn’t a close call: The core of their argument against Mitt Romney is that he is an untrustworthy politician with no real core of conviction. Obama’s advisers — who are acutely conscious of the media’s criticism despite their professed contempt for the news cycle — simply couldn’t afford to have the president appear like a coward on the front and editorial pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post, according to senior Democrats. 
 
 If Biden’s comments were the catalyst for Wednesday’s historic announcement, Jay Carney was the immediate trigger, officials said. The White House press secretary took a serious drubbing on Monday when reporters all but accused the White House of cowardice on the issue. 
 
 Obama made his announcement to save Carney, an official joked. 
 
 And so the president took the final step Wednesday in his “evolving” views of a major gay rights issue. ||||| WASHINGTON -- As he weighed a shift in his public position on gay marriage, perhaps no one had as much influence on President Obama as his wife, Michelle. 
 
 "This is something that, you know, we've talked about over the years and she, you know, she feels the same way, she feels the same way that I do," Obama told ABC's Robin Roberts on Wednesday. 
 
 Even as Obama's position was in a state of evolution, White House advisors said, the first lady went out of her way to invite gay, lesbian, transgendered and bisexual couples to the events she sponsored for military families. 
 
 
 
 Around the West Wing, there are several gay staffers, and at least one in a committed relationship and raising children. And the Obama daughters have friends with same-sex parents, whom the first family has gotten to know. 
 
 "There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we're talking about their friends and their parents, and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn't dawn on them that somehow their friends' parents would be treated differently. It doesn't make sense to them and frankly, that's the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective," Obama said. 
 
 One day a few weeks ago, aides said, the president told his top advisors that he had reached a personal decision. He wanted to weigh in on the gay-marriage discussion. 
 
 
 
 "He was ready," said one senior administration official who requested anonymity to discuss the private talk. 
 
 
 
 The account offered by White House aides Wednesday gives the impression of a carefully planned rollout of the president's new view. Before then, the subject was one officials were reluctant to discuss. 
 
 
 
 After Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday that he was "absolutely comfortable" with gay couples being married, the White House was at pains to say the comments were entirely consistent with Obama's position, and swatted away questions about new policy that might be forthcoming. 
 
 
 
 Now, following the president's comments, aides say he wanted to affirm the idea of same-sex marriage before the Democratic National Convention. 
 
 
 
 It would be a subject of discussion in platform talks and in private conversation, the president told his team, and he wanted to be in front of it. He also felt it was right to tell the country that he had arrived at a new place before the election, said a second senior official. 
 
 
 
 Advisors tried to game out how that would play in terms of the election: Maybe swing-state voters wouldn't like it, it would suppress enthusiasm among black volunteers or it would turn off evangelical Latinos otherwise leaning toward Obama. 
 
 
 
 On the other hand, maybe voters would give him credit for taking a stand. Perhaps young volunteers and donors would be inspired and energized by the move. 
 
 
 
 There was no way to predict the "crosscurrents," said the second official. 
 
 
 
 The White House team was planning to take more time to lay out their plan, but then the vice president went on "Meet the Press" last Sunday. He wasn't expected to articulate his own view if asked about this but rather to talk about the president's record and evolving viewpoint. 
 
 
 
 Because the vice president knew Obama was ready, a senior advisor said, he "leaned in more than he normally would have" when he was asked about the issue. 
 
 
 
 A day later, Education Secretary Arne Duncan surprised the staff by weighing in with his position in support of same-sex marriage. 
 
 
 
 The two events combined served to move up the timing, and the West Wing reached out to ABC to give the president a chance to say it himself. 
 
 
 
 "He always planned to do it sooner rather than later," the official said. "This just moved up the timing."
– If the United States of America had a nickel for every time its current vice president opened his mouth and inserted foot, we'd all get a trip to Disneyland. But Joe Biden's comments Sunday instead got us President Obama's personal endorsement of gay marriage—yesterday, not at some random point over the summer. The vice president absolutely forced the president's hand in terms of timing, White House insiders tell Politico, and Obama seemed to confirm that in his full ABC interview, aired on GMA this morning. "I had already made a decision that we were going to take this position before the election and before the convention," Obama said. "He probably got a little bit over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit," added Obama. "Would I have preferred to have done this in my own way, in my own terms, without there being a lot of notice to everybody? Sure," he continued. "But all's well that ends well." Biden "leaned in more than he normally would have," a senior adviser tells the LA Times, but the VP fully knew that Obama's mind was made up weeks or months ago when he spoke Sunday. Coupled with Arne Duncan's unexpected stance on the issue the following day, the White House's careful deliberations on the political implications of a presidential endorsement went up in smoke.