We all know about Obama's statement regarding the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. Obama, while admitting that he did not know the details, couldn't resist saying "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."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is playing word games once again, or rather is being served up as a proxy for Obama's word games once again. In this article by the AP via Boston Herald.com, Gibbs proclaims that "the president did not regret his Wednesday remarks[regarding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates], but wanted to clarify that he was not calling the arresting officer stupid."
Well, Obama not regretting his remarks is hardly news. After all, can anyone think of any of his own words or actions Obama has publicly regretted? He's backpedaled and "qualified" of course, and Obama has a penchant for touring about and ingratiatingly apologizing for others' actions (especially in foreign countries), but something that he himself has done? I'm drawing a blank.
But let's go ahead and move on, and see what Obama is saying through his spokeman. Obama said, in no uncertain terms (that he does not regret), "that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home" but that the police's arresting officer, Sgt. Crowley, who made the decision was not stupid. So Sgt. Crowley made a stupid decision, but isn't himself stupid. Huh... And just what does that mean?
I suppose the Forrest Gump adage "stupid is as stupid does" just doesn't seem to apply here, especially during frantic political backpedaling.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Obama seems to have no idea that a president's words and actions reflect an entire nation, not just whatever notions and biases happen to be surfacing in his consciousness at any given moment.
ReplyDeleteHow many watchful neighbors have Obama and Gates managed to dissuade from calling the police about a suspected crime in progress?
How many police has he discouraged for no good reason?
How many hoodlums has he encouraged to give police a hard time?
Obama's right: he's got the best police protection and health care in the world, by far, but he's not being truthful when he says he's looking out for those that don't.
WE Americans need to take trivial matters and put them in perspective.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Gregory B. Luckey
Trivial matters such as race and the police? I grew up in L.A. and was present during the Rodney King riots. I don't think the perspectives offered by this incident are actually so trivial.
ReplyDelete