My President is a grown up.

Just saw his statement on countdown. No ego but what can I / we do to make things better.

By commenting on a topic he admitted he had scant facts and a bias on. That is not ok, not for him or any other President.

I hope he doesn't step in it any more. It is not helpful in any way. The reason people are talking about it is becausse his comments have pissed off lots of people, and not because they are stupid or misunderstood what he said. The best thing President Obama could do is to admit he stepped in it, a real apology to Sgt. Crowley, and guess what would happen after that? The issue would fade away to the many other pressing issues.

it was a frenzy before he commented, that is why they asked him about it.

And his comment was on the nose, as is his efforts to bring about resolution.

How horrible it would be to have an idiot in the office who has no opinion on race issues.

You support the President of the United States stating that he does not know the facts, that he has a bias....and then offering an opinion? Bull to you right back. This is not responsible, wise, or prudent.

As far as the media frenzy, are you kidding? The coverage is all about President Obama's comments, or are you trying to convince an audience that without Obama's comments an arrest of a mostly unknown Harvard professor would have overshadowed the POTUS' heathcare speech? LOL.

and it would be about Palin's last days if he hadn't commented.

And please, link me to where he said he didn't know the facts and had no bias.

He is a black man and I would bet you a dollar to a doughnut that he has been stopped by white cops just because he was a black man.

It happens all too often.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/us/politics/22obama.transcript.html?_r=1&pagewanted=12

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I -- I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here.

I don't know all the facts. What's been reported, though, is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house; there was a report called into the police station that there might be a burglary taking place.

So far, so good, right? I mean, if I was trying to jigger into -- well, I guess this is my house now, so -- (laughter) -- it probably wouldn't happen.

(Chuckling.) But let's say my old house in Chicago -- (laughter) -- here I'd get shot. (Laughter.) But so far, so good. They're -- they're -- they're reporting. The police are doing what they should. There's a call. They go investigate. What happens?

My understanding is, at that point, Professor Gates is already in his house. The police officer comes in. I'm sure there's some exchange of words. But my understanding is -- is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show that this is his house, and at that point he gets arrested for disorderly conduct, charges which are later dropped.

Now, I've -- I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.

And number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcing disproportionately. That's just a fact.

As you know, Lynn, when I was in the state legislature in Illinois, we worked on a racial profiling bill because there was indisputable evidence that blacks and Hispanics were being stopped disproportionately. And that is a sign, an example of how, you know, race remains a factor in the society.

That doesn't lessen the incredible progress that has been made. I am standing here as testimony to the progress that's been made. And yet the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, this still haunts us.

And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently, and oftentime for no cause, casts suspicion even when there is good cause. And that's why I think the more that we're working with local law enforcement to improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias, the safer everybody's going to be.

He said he didn't know all the facts.

And he was pretty complete in what facts he did know.

But my understanding is -- is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show that this is his house, and at that point he gets arrested for disorderly conduct, charges which are later dropped.

Now, I've -- I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts,

And like I said, sure he has bias, he knows Gates and he is a black man that has probably had to deal with racial profiling. It is real.

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.

Simply saying "FAIL" does not make it so.

PO said it exactly what he needed to say and your concern is noted.:scared:

I can't take no more :rofl:

Cop is having beer, Gates is chillin', and Obama is being praised on this board.

I don't know! :rofl:

:D

:rofl:

but how you handle it that's the measure of a person.

over the whole Triangle of Gates, crowley, and PO.

IMV, Pres Obama diffused it nicely.

than a guy who'd shove a post-op heart patient out of his way, at the guy's own library.

What an uncouth, spoiled sack of shit. Bullying and pushing Bill, to get out first. Jesus I am so glad that ass carrot is gone from the national stage.

"THE PRESIDENT: Hey, it’s a cameo appearance. Sit down, sit down. I need to help Gibbs out a little bit here.

I wanted to address you guys directly because over the last day and a half obviously there’s been all sorts of controversy around the incident that happened in Cambridge with Professor Gates and the police department there.


I actually just had a conversation with Sergeant Jim Crowley, the officer involved. And I have to tell you that as I said yesterday, my impression of him was that he was a outstanding police officer and a good man, and that was confirmed in the phone conversation — and I told him that.

And because this has been ratcheting up — and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up — I want to make clear that in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically — and I could have calibrated those words differently. And I told this to Sergeant Crowley.

I continue to believe, based on what I have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling Professor Gates out of his home to the station. I also continue to believe, based on what I heard, that Professor Gates probably overreacted as well. My sense is you’ve got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved and the way they would have liked it to be resolved.

The fact that it has garnered so much attention I think is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America. So to the extent that my choice of words didn’t illuminate, but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think that was unfortunate.

What I’d like to do then I make sure that everybody steps back for a moment, recognizes that these are two decent people, not extrapolate too much from the facts — but as I said at the press conference, be mindful of the fact that because of our history, because of the difficulties of the past, you know, African Americans are sensitive to these issues. And even when you’ve got a police officer who has a fine track record on racial sensitivity, interactions between police officers and the African American community can sometimes be fraught with misunderstanding.

My hope is, is that as a consequence of this event this ends up being what’s called a “teachable moment,” where all of us instead of pumping up the volume spend a little more time listening to each other and try to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers and minority communities, and that instead of flinging accusations we can all be a little more reflective in terms of what we can do to contribute to more unity. Lord knows we need it right now — because over the last two days as we’ve discussed this issue, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but nobody has been paying much attention to health care. (Laughter.)

I will not use this time to spend more words on health care, although I can’t guarantee that that will be true next week. I just wanted to emphasize that — one last point I guess I would make. There are some who say that as President I shouldn’t have stepped into this at all because it’s a local issue. I have to tell you that that part of it I disagree with. The fact that this has become such a big issue I think is indicative of the fact that race is still a troubling aspect of our society. Whether I were black or white, I think that me commenting on this and hopefully contributing to constructive — as opposed to negative — understandings about the issue, is part of my portfolio.

So at the end of the conversation there was a discussion about — my conversation with Sergeant Crowley, there was discussion about he and I and Professor Gates having a beer here in the White House. We don’t know if that’s scheduled yet — (laughter) — but we may put that together.

He also did say he wanted to find out if there was a way of getting the press off his lawn. (Laughter.) I informed him that I can’t get the press off my lawn. (Laughter.) He pointed out that my lawn is bigger than his lawn. (Laughter.) But if anybody has any connections to the Boston press, as well as national press, Sergeant Crowley would be happy for you to stop trampling his grass.

All right. Thank you, guys."

And he doesn't even have to prance around in a flight suit in order to have our attention.

gasp.....used diplomacy to get them both to the table to talk. President Obama is a grown up and the Republicans fear him greatly because of it.

Something else is happening though...to the Repugs angst race relations is going to be discussed in a rational way and that totally screws up their race baiting.

the last 48 hours, they've been silent on the whole matter.

No leader to tell them what to say?

Or is Rush's blathering good enough for them?

It's a very interesting phenomenon. Nobody was saying "the President should issue a correction," yet now all of a sudden everyone acts as if that was what we all wanted him to do.

Have we reached a point where:

-if Obama says the actions of X were stupid=good move.
-If Obama says he should have used different words=good move.

?

delete

Because he did exactly what I wanted him to do.

Yet the majority defended his words to the effect that the police department had acted in a stupid way.

politically wise given the political attacks from the Party of Death and its bigoted and racist members.

with your assessment!

:hi:

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Difficult to understand?

Everyone acts according to their character and personality without having 365/24 watchdogs telling them how to behave.
If they do good, they cheer and applaud.
If they don't, the opposite happens.

Still, not clear - have a pizza.

Unlike the members of the Party of Death. When was the last time a republican did the right thing? In the 1950's as I recall.

I don't believe I understand this one??

But, I think he acknowledged that with the media coverage, the spin on the story was getting out of hand, and that maybe he could use this to try to ramp down tension on both sides. I think it was thoughtful, even though I was happy that he made his opinion known the other day. That said, I call bullshit on your "issue a correction" spin, not exactly what he did.

For some here, whatever Obama does is cause for cheering, if had stood firm and said nothing else, that would have been the perfect thing to do. If he had gone down on one knee and asked the world for forgiveness, that would have been the perfect move.

When he answered the question the way he did it was brilliant, when he said the officer was outstanding, it's absolute genius.

C'mon, get with it.

hate, if he hadn't stood firm, that would have been wrong. If he had jumped up and down and said he meant every word, that would have been wrong.

Whether he answered the question or not, you would have said he was wrong.

Keep at it....your m.o. is quite obvious.

I was hoping he would address it again. But, thanks for your stereotyping.

My only question is why?

He's smarter than many of us....


During the Elections (that he won overwhelmingly),
there was a pic that we often posted of him ....




and so we learned. :shrug:

fodder for as long as they could. Now that President Obama has come out and logically explained that both sides were hot heads and that they are all going to meet it takes the wind out of the argument. That's why they are quiet.

No matter how he responds to a situation they are going to complain about it.

First comment was an honest evaluation of overreaction by a police officer. But done in some manner that could be interpreted to contain some bias, a thing that is quite normal for all people.

Second comment was to put the hype and stuff being stirred up to end, including by police union in my view, since the conversation at that point has no purpose.

The police union effectively said nobody can say police sometimes do dumb things. We all do dumb things sometimes. So that is silly.

Comically the police Union statement was the exact same thing the police officer did. And President Obama's comment, although more subdued was the same thing the Harvard Professor did.


Harvard Professor brought up a point about police overreach not very tactfully, police overreacted and arrested him.

President Obama commented on a point about a police overreach not very tactfully, and the police union overreacted and said he should apologize to all police.

The irony is :rofl:

when he said it the very first time.

He NEVER said the Cambridge Police were stupid. He didn't say the officer was stupid. He used the term "acted stupidly" for arresting the man in his own home after he presented ID.

That WAS a dumb thing to do. People can lapse and do regrettable things without being a stupid person overall.

But that was apparently too subtle for the MSM to understand and the overreactive police who misinterpreted it and demanded apologies.

So, because the media is all to happy to ride a wave of misinformation and sweep everyone up in it, the President made a very smart move and put the issue to rest.

Crack is bad for you.

I guess grown-ups have to act to appease the opposition party's blind race baiting and right-wing media distortion.

Do grown-ups apologize to the white racist power structure? Was it childish for Obama to try and speak out about this?

They calm those who are agitated and misinformed.

And I respect him for it.