The fine hippies over at StopTheDrugWar.org are furious with President-elect Barack Obama.

Why? Because he doesn’t plan to legalize marijuana in the foreseeable future—if ever.

Their red-eyed outrage began with Obama’s homepage, Change.gov, which solicited questions from Obama supporters and determined the popularity of each one based on the total number of responses.

Unsurprisingly, marijuana’s legalization topped the list, but the Chronicle Blog took personal offense to Obama’s camp answering the question fourth.

Scott Morgan of the Chronicle Blog writes:

Not only did Obama’s team fail to explain the "no" answer, but they didn’t even honor the 1st place popularity rank the question earned when it drew the most votes from the public.

There’s nothing surprising about any of this, but it is indeed perfectly emblematic of the profound lack of seriousness with which this issue is treated in our political culture. The marijuana question was answered second to last and received the shortest response of all the questions.

OK, so Obama answered the question with a cold, unnerving, resounding “no.”

Would it have really made a difference if he had responded with a three-part dissertation that still concluded with a refusal to legalize marijuana?

The answer, yet again, is “no.”

You have to walk before you run, fellow hippies. Let’s get marijuana decriminalized first, and then shoot for the heavens.