FrankRep
07-31-2009, 02:05 PM
Beer Summit's Purpose? Take the Heat Off Obama (http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5175-beer-summits-purpose-take-the-heat-off-obama-)
John F. McManus | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
31 July 2009
The highly anticipated White House meeting of black Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates and white Cambridge, Massachusetts police Sergeant James Crowley occurred without either apologizing to the other over Gates’ racially charged arrest for disorderly conduct on July 16.
Moreover, there was no apology from President Obama who suggested the meeting and hosted it at a picnic table on the White House South Lawn. It was the President’s incredibly untimely remark that elevated the situation from a local dispute into a national – even international – uproar. During a press conference dealing with his plan for a federal takeover of the nation’s health care system, Mr. Obama responded to a question about the confrontation between the policeman and the professor. He said that he didn’t have all the facts, yet he followed that admission with “the police acted stupidly.” If anyone acted stupidly during that nationally televised appearance, it was the president himself.
Professor Gates had been confronted at his own home by several policemen who were responding to a report that there was a break-in in progress at Gates’ home. A passerby had seen Gates and the taxi driver who had just brought him from the airport forcing their way into the premises because of a stuck door. The alert passerby called 911. When the police arrived, they didn’t know what had occurred and Sgt. Crowley requested identification from the professor. The situation rapidly deteriorated with Gates making accusations about racial profiling and getting himself arrested and handcuffed for disorderly conduct. The charges were almost immediately dropped. But President Obama injected himself into the matter with his remarkably uncalled for condemnation of the police.
A photo of the incident shows the angered professor in handcuffs. But it also shows the presence of a black policeman named Leon Lashley, who has always insisted that Sgt. Crowley’s handling of the situation was entirely proper and would have been his way of handling it if he were the senior man on the scene.
The incident amounted to a misunderstanding between a veteran and highly respected policeman and a nationally-known Harvard academic. It would likely have blown over as it was properly resolved at the local level except for the intemperate remark by the President who has since stated that his remark should be “recalibrated.” That he harmed his own reputation can hardly be denied.
Aware of this and how it reflected on him, Mr. Obama arranged for the two men to come to the White House, join him in sipping a beer, and patch over their disagreement. The meeting was staged as though the issue was the confrontation between the two men at the Gates home in Massachusetts. Much of the reporting about the gathering, attended also by Vice President Biden, was about race relations and the bury-the-hatchet attitude of the two.
That’s the way President Obama wanted it. The issue would never have captured so much attention if Mr. Obama hadn’t poured gasoline on it. He now knows that he was completely out of order with his snap judgment about the police. His subsequent expression of regret for what he said wasn’t enough. So he had the two men come together in his presence as if he were the great conciliator. The truth is that he was the great inflamer. He now hopes that most Americans will look upon him as a calmer of racial animosities that he brought to an unnecessary boil. And that was the main purpose of the “beer summit.”
Whether the President’s goal will be achieved in the minds of the American public remains to be seen.
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5175-beer-summits-purpose-take-the-heat-off-obama-
John F. McManus | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
31 July 2009
The highly anticipated White House meeting of black Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates and white Cambridge, Massachusetts police Sergeant James Crowley occurred without either apologizing to the other over Gates’ racially charged arrest for disorderly conduct on July 16.
Moreover, there was no apology from President Obama who suggested the meeting and hosted it at a picnic table on the White House South Lawn. It was the President’s incredibly untimely remark that elevated the situation from a local dispute into a national – even international – uproar. During a press conference dealing with his plan for a federal takeover of the nation’s health care system, Mr. Obama responded to a question about the confrontation between the policeman and the professor. He said that he didn’t have all the facts, yet he followed that admission with “the police acted stupidly.” If anyone acted stupidly during that nationally televised appearance, it was the president himself.
Professor Gates had been confronted at his own home by several policemen who were responding to a report that there was a break-in in progress at Gates’ home. A passerby had seen Gates and the taxi driver who had just brought him from the airport forcing their way into the premises because of a stuck door. The alert passerby called 911. When the police arrived, they didn’t know what had occurred and Sgt. Crowley requested identification from the professor. The situation rapidly deteriorated with Gates making accusations about racial profiling and getting himself arrested and handcuffed for disorderly conduct. The charges were almost immediately dropped. But President Obama injected himself into the matter with his remarkably uncalled for condemnation of the police.
A photo of the incident shows the angered professor in handcuffs. But it also shows the presence of a black policeman named Leon Lashley, who has always insisted that Sgt. Crowley’s handling of the situation was entirely proper and would have been his way of handling it if he were the senior man on the scene.
The incident amounted to a misunderstanding between a veteran and highly respected policeman and a nationally-known Harvard academic. It would likely have blown over as it was properly resolved at the local level except for the intemperate remark by the President who has since stated that his remark should be “recalibrated.” That he harmed his own reputation can hardly be denied.
Aware of this and how it reflected on him, Mr. Obama arranged for the two men to come to the White House, join him in sipping a beer, and patch over their disagreement. The meeting was staged as though the issue was the confrontation between the two men at the Gates home in Massachusetts. Much of the reporting about the gathering, attended also by Vice President Biden, was about race relations and the bury-the-hatchet attitude of the two.
That’s the way President Obama wanted it. The issue would never have captured so much attention if Mr. Obama hadn’t poured gasoline on it. He now knows that he was completely out of order with his snap judgment about the police. His subsequent expression of regret for what he said wasn’t enough. So he had the two men come together in his presence as if he were the great conciliator. The truth is that he was the great inflamer. He now hopes that most Americans will look upon him as a calmer of racial animosities that he brought to an unnecessary boil. And that was the main purpose of the “beer summit.”
Whether the President’s goal will be achieved in the minds of the American public remains to be seen.
SOURCE:
http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/5175-beer-summits-purpose-take-the-heat-off-obama-