The Obama campaign has responded by saying that the President is a strong supporter of ethanol as a driver of the economy. The President was speaking in Iowa at the time. But even if you support ethanol – and studies show the corn-based version costs us more in energy to harvest than it’s worth – you cannot deny the economic harm created by the mandate at this time, given the drought conditions. The price spikes have caused a severe hardship for livestock producers in particular who use corn to feed their animals. The head of the UN’s food program, Jose Graziano da Silva, also called for a suspension of the ethanol mandate.

Perdue took the politically safe route of emphasizing the waste of time and money that the Republicans who pushed this amendment initiative through as unemployment plagues our state, but it is a slap in the face to use the statement to reiterate that every taxpaying LGBT citizen in this state is a second-class citizen and she likes it that way.

She didn’t have to do it, but she did. And that matters.