It would be nice if our Commander in Chief would condescend at some point, when he can fit it into his busy schedule of trying to motivate his enervated base, to explain just why he is dithering on delivering on his campaign promise to can DADT; waiting for what - Godot? Meanwhile, the courts will continue to embarrass themselves by masturbating over this issue, regarding which they have no business being in, in the first place.
I really don't care for Obama's behavior on this issue this past week, but he's been pretty clear that the military report on DADT due in early December is what he is waiting for, and absolutely no movement before then. He needs the military's buy-in to proceed and isn't willing to do otherwise. Since DADT was passed by Congress and needs to be either repealed by Congress or invalidated as unconstitutional, he doesn't have the legal power Clinton had with the gay ban to simply repeal it.
There were plenty of ways he could have achieved de facto repeal without de jure repeal, such as suspending enforcement by executive order, which would have opened the door to President Romney or Pawlenty reinstituting it in 2013 or 2017, but the horse would have been out the barn and I don't think there would have been any appetite for doing so. He could have achieved the same by not seeking a stay, but he's intent on "doing this right" as he sees it. It's certainly pissing off the people I know, but not to the extent that we wouldn't vote in this year's election.
I said yesterday on FB that the brief policy change felt like San Francisco gay marriages in Feb. '04 and so it has been.