Obama supports?

So many significant events have taken place recently that it's really next to impossible not to overlook something important: Wikileaks have released a gigantic pile of documents on the Iraqi war, construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories has resumed at full speed and gay people of America, after a brief period of legal equality, are again being refused admittance to the American army.

What caught my attention, however, was a sentence from the BBC news article on the last of these events. The sentence explains clearly and concisely the other two developments as well. In the news item on the gay military ban on the BBC website, I found the following: 'President Barack Obama has said he supports getting rid of the policy, but his administration believes that overturning it immediately could cause problems for the military.' It says it all, doesn't it?

Firstly, the word 'immediately' is nothing more than a bad joke here as President Obama has been in office for almost two years now. Secondly, it would seem that it is the President who runs his administration, not vice versa, so his decision and support should always have the upper hand in any dispute with the administration. Besides, why should there be any dispute? Anybody opposing him in his own administration should be fired on the spot.

Summarising, it seems that the American President is no longer a decision maker in the country he has been elected to govern. So who is? And does it make sense to held presidential ellections in the first place as the elected president cannot fulfil a single promise from his campaign.

PS
Since I spotted that sentence in a BBC article, the article itself has been changed. Below a link to the new version of the article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-us-canada-11589638

The original article: 
Obama administration seeks gay military ruling stay

The White House has asked a US appeals court to suspend a judge's decision permitting gays to serve openly in the military, while it appeals against it.

The military began accepting gay recruits this week after a judge struck down the "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring openly gay people from serving.

The US defence department had warned gay recruits that an appeal could come.

Judge Virginia Phillips refused a request from the Pentagon this week to reinstate the ban.

The Obama administration says it wants the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco to grant an emergency while the government prepares its appeal against the ruling by the California judge.

President Barack Obama has said he supports getting rid of the policy, but his administration believes that overturning it immediately could cause problems for the military.