“The Speech” that the President is going to deliver at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner in Washington, D.C. is generating a lot of speculation and calls for certain actions to be taken. Only folks privy to what he’s going to say know whether or not it’s going to be a…

1) “feel good and wait for your rights” speech;

2) “isn’t passing Hate Crimes wonderful, that is your bone, people” speech; or

3) “I’m dropping a bomb and going to get behind ___  as a priority” speech.

Many people have weighed in in one manner or another, but I thought I’d kick off with this reaction by Barney Frank about the march, where the folks who don’t have dinner tickets will gather on Sunday (he was on Mike Signorile’s show yesterday).:

>Barney Frank believes the march this weekend and rally on the mall are “useless” and don’t put pressure on the White House. “I literally don’t understand how this will do anything,” he said. “People are kidding themselves. I don’t want people patting themselves on the back for doing something that is useless.” Besides, he says, “Barack Obama does not need pressure.” He says we should model ourselves as lobbyists on “the National Rifle Association.” He says people should not come to Washington and should stay home and lobby their members of Congress. “Nobody in Congress even knows they’re there, he says, and he is not attending the March: He is going to California to raise money for himself and other Democrats.

Don’t put pressure on the WH? Isn’t the President the one who said to hold him accountable? Hmmm. Click over to hear his comments about DOMA repeal, ENDA and Hate Crimes. I’m just baffled trying to understand in what universe did he think that statement accomplished anything positive. He doesn’t have to endorse the march, but he certainly doesn’t need to denigrate people who choose to attend.

About the dinner, SLDN has just called for Obama to announce he will move with Congress on DADT repeal.

One of those patriots is Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, a Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) active-duty client who is set to be discharged under the law. “The President told me in June, ‘We’ll get this done,’” says Fehrenbach, referring to the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”  ”I hope to hear from him this weekend about timing-specifically when the President plans on working with Congress to reverse the law.”

Wayne Besen, in “Obama’s Big Gay Speech” said:

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) deserves a heaping helping of praise for furnishing a primetime platform for Obama to impart his message. But, the President and HRC must realize that the stakes are even higher than the price of the steaks served in the ballroom of the black-tie affair. While no one will likely yell, “you lie” in the middle of his remarks, there will be a collective sigh if all we get is a pretty speech.

…At a bare minimum, the president should vow to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) by the end of the year, which would prohibit hiring and firing on the basis of sexual orientation. Currently, it is legal to fire a person if he or she is gay in the majority of states.  The President should forcefully condemn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prohibits married gay couples from receiving federal benefits. It would be wise, as well, for Obama to use this opportunity to make a compelling case, as only he can, for scrapping the disastrous Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy, which humiliates gay service members and harms military readiness.

And activist David Mixner makes no bones about it either:

We must hear concrete action from the president beyond that he might sign hate crimes legislation shortly or even before the dinner. It is inconceivable to me that the hosts would allow him to attend the dinner without a solid commitment that he will oppose the hate filled initiative in Maine. That would be unacceptable. How exciting would it be at the HRC National Dinner to have the president in a timely and unequivocal way put the power of the Presidency behind our the historic and epic struggle in Maine?

If he doesn’t at least invoke Maine on top of hate crimes and maybe an ambassadorship it will be extremely disappointing. People are already voting by absentee in Maine. Now is the time. The president and HRC should be clear: the LGBT community expects nothing less or else why bother attending? You can’t marry with symbolism. You need a license.

In a knock on Barney Frank’s door, David says: “For those of you upset that we are keeping the pressure on Obama before he speaks at the HRC Dinner, do you really think he is responding because of a lack of pressure?”

More below the fold.Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry had these thoughts on what the President should say.

President Obama has the opportunity — and I believe the obligation — to speak in moral as well as concrete terms about non-gay people’s stake in ending the exclusion and discrimination gay people endure. President Obama should not just talk about his general support for equality, and even just specific items he is working on, but, in addition, needs to make the case as to why Americans must continue evolving in support of fairness and freedom, and why anti-gay discrimination must end.

…[What he would like Obama to say] The conversation about the freedom to marry and changing attitudes continues throughout the country, with many people of good will thinking it through. We all know that marriage matters, and that love and commitment enrich our lives here on earth. Government has no business putting obstacles in the path of people seeking to care for their loved ones, gay or non-gay. And it is wrong to take away rights from any group of people. We don’t do that in America.

Ballot-measures such as Question 1 in Maine do not help families or strengthen communities; rather they undermine basic values and hurt families while helping no one. I oppose Question 1 in Maine and urge Maine’s voters to reject this discriminatory effort to strip away rights and dignity from gay and lesbian couples. Mainers should vote no, and should embrace full equality, including the freedom to marry. And as Maine goes, so goes the nation.

Andrew Sullivan, on the other hand, has extremely low expectations, given the behavior at the White House so far.

In some ways, Obama’s fealty to the big gay lobby rather than to the real gay community is testimony to why Democratic party politics remain repulsive to me. HRC has achieved nothing substantive for gay equality on a federal level in the twenty years I’ve been observing them. But they sure know how to milk donors at swanky black tie affairs. They are the Rotary Club for affluent gays, and their prime job is to explain to the gay community why it is never in the Democratic party’s interest to do anything for gay people that might actually resemble equality. Oh, yes, we’ll get a lovely Obama speech. Like that costs him anything or proves anything.

There is nothing Obama can say at this self-satisfied, well-heeled Rotary Club dinner that he hasn’t said before. And the idea that simply showing up is something we should all be ecstatic over and grateful for is another sign of the low self-esteem and lack of self-respect among the leaders of that organization who did all they could to defeat Obama in the primaries last spring. I won’t be there and haven’t been there for more than a decade. It is not a forum to advance gay rights; it is a fundraising session designed to make people feel better for backing an organization incapable of passing laws supported by overwhelming majorities of the American people. Oh, and fawning over B-list Hollywood celebrities.

If Obama wants to support gay equality, he knows what to do. If Pelosi and Reid want to support gay equality, they know what to do. If HRC believes in gay equality, they also know what to do.

Richard Socarides, who served under President Clinton, notes that if the President doesn’t commit to concrete action, he’s going to lay a goose egg on Saturday.

“It’s been eleven months since the election, he has expended very little political capital for our benefit,” said Richard Socarides, a former LGBT advisor and special assistant to President Bill Clinton. “He needs to deliver on ending the military gay ban and come out for marriage equality — like Clinton did recently — if he is going to change the general perception in the gay community that this continues to be a very low priority for him now.”

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What do I think? Well, I’m hearing background rumblings that there will be no news in this speech. Of course this could be grapevine head faking to lower expectations. Honestly, I can’t imagine the White House and the President would deliver a message at that dinner that is more of the same happy talk and nothing in hand that we’ve had all this time. Naming a gay ambassador is not news, passing hate crimes isn’t really news either. It was going to pass in this Congress anyway.

He has to raise the bar for his administration, and unfortunately that requires gravitas and willingness to use the bully pulpit during a time when he’s battling for health care reform. I just don’t see him stretching beyond his (er, Rahm’s)  re-election comfort zone. I would love to be pleasantly surprised, as would those thousands marching. They will not be happy campers with an Obama goose egg.