Obama’s really stepped in it this time. By calling police “stupid” in the Henry Louis Gates arrest without knowing what actually happened, he put himself firmly on what turns out to be the wrong side of the issue. The cop was not only right to investigate (there had been several break-ins in the area, including one of Gates’ home) and to arrest Gates based on his behavior, he actually teaches a course on avoiding racial profiling, making him about the farthest thing possible from a racist.
Attempting damage control today among mounting criticism…
Obama “was dead wrong to malign this police officer specifically and the department in general,” Alan McDonald, the lawyer for the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, told ABC News today.
… Barack “Words Matter” Obama tried to explain what he really meant is the police are great and can’t we all just get along?
“I think that I have extraordinary respect for the difficulties of the job that police officers do,” the president told Moran. “And my suspicion is that words were exchanged between the police officer and Mr. Gates and that everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed. That’s my suspicion.”
Not so. Gates was creating a public disturbance, and by the meaning of “disorderly conduct,” he clearly should have been arrested.
A typical statutory definition of disorderly conduct, in this case Indiana’s, defines the offense in this way:
A person who recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally:
(1) engages in fighting or in tumultuous conduct;
(2) makes unreasonable noise and continues to do so after being asked to stop; or
(3) disrupts a lawful assembly of persons;
If you scream at someone, cop or not, on your front porch in a suburban neighborhood, you are disturbing the peace, because it’s an unreasonable noise. You will be warned, and then arrested if you are too stupid to stop when the police tell you to. People living in the neighborhood have a right not to be disturbed by screaming lunatics.
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Not only was it dumb for Obama to comment on something when he admits to not knowing the facts, it also distracted from the whole point of his presser, which was to promote his health care agenda.
And his Senate-itis and lack of executive experience is showing. No executive politician would ever comment on a local police matter until all the facts are in and all the legal issues have been resolved.
The more I see him in action, the more I’m completely underwhelmed by Obama’s skills in governing. Sure, he’s a master at winning elections, but he ain’t much for doing anything after he’s in office.
Since I’m in a politically different universe from him, I think that’s a Good Thing, but his supporters will be sorely disappointed.
Obama’s entry into this fray will almost certainly result in a lawsuit now that the issue is a national front page story. I can guarantee you that Gates has been overwhelmed with lawyers begging to represent him and get 30% of a multi-million dollar settlement and national recognition for themselves or their firm.
This is the Obama I warned you all about. A man who does not understand his impact and is too inexperienced to even know when to say “let the investigation complete and we’ll have a statement then if necessary.”
The whole “Obama is the smartest man in America” thing has begun to sour hasn’t it?
Don’t underestimate how much this single incident is going to turn off millions of normal average Americans who like to assume cops are good guys and who have raised their kids to say “Yes sir” and “No sir” whenever they deal with cops.
Gates sounds like one of these pretentious Harvard asshole Professors, who saw fit to parlay an unfortunate, but simple misunderstanding into a flammable racial grievance. The horror.
While it is true that slavery and Jim Crow were (and remain to some extent) terrible stains on our country’s honor, these modern-day racial hucksters have done more to hurt black folks over the past 30 years than a group of ignorant yahoos in Eastern Tennessee wearing white sheets.
–HB
Agreed. Prof. Gates is a man who’s entire job is based upon his race. He’s the one who sees the world in black and white, because his entire career is based around it.
I support the officer in this case. What’s amazing is that when I checked the “Comments” of the CNN story, 95% of the hundreds of comments basically also supported the officer. Perhaps there’s hope for us, yet.
I repeat myself, don’t underestimate how much this has hurt Obama. This is seriously bad for Obama, and the most hilarious thing is that he doesn’t seem to understand that yet.
The one odd / sad / funny angle of this that isn’t getting any play because of the MASSIVE screwup by Obama to even comment on this, let alone to come down on the Al Sharpton side is this:
This is supposed to be the greatest orator of our day. The most inspirational public speaker in a generation. And the most eloquent thing he can come up with is STUPIDLY ? Are you serious ? At least he was able to cobble it into an adverb so the grammar was right. TOTUS would be ashamed if it were involved.
On Drudge today this was escalated in two ways. First the Policeman’s union actually CONDEMNED Obama’s comment. That’s very strong language and doesn’t come easily from a union that supported Obama strongly.
Second, the policeman who was the focus of the “stupidly” comment has hired a lawyer and is looking at potentially suing Gates for slander or libel or character assassination or something. If that suit actually happens, this will become a regular story, repeatedly reminding America that when push comes to shove, not only does Obama reflexivly support Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro, but he comes down on the same side as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as well.
This will NOT go down well with middle America.
I think this is guarenteed to promote racial dishoramony; the PRESIDENT says the police was acting stupid, the perp claims racial discrimination — the Pres doesn’t deny as far as I can tell (or it didn’t make much news).
Do you remember when oral sex became an in-school phenomena?
P Mike:
Your last sentence is a real sore spot with me. In 1998 my daughter ws 11 years old and in middle school. I probably should have had many conversations with her over sexual matters by then according to today’s modern PC police, but I had not and did not plan on doing so for a few more years. But Bill Clinton forced me to discuss oral sex with my 11 year old daughter because she heard it on the news and on the radio and wanted to know what it was.
When she got to high school she told me that the kids in her school didn’t consider oral sex “sex” because Bill Clinton had said it wasn’t sex and apparently the majority of Americans agreed with him. According to her the boys in school were pressuring their girlfriends to have oral sex because it wasn’t really “sex.”
Words from Presidents have consequences.
Obama’s approval rating has fallen to new lows. For the first time a MAJORITY of Americans DISAPPROVE of him.
And I don’t think the GatesGate thing has had time to register in the polls.
A few weeks ago I asked if Obama had hit his tipping point…
Well, I’m biased of course, but I sure hope so. Nothing could be better for this country than for Obama to fail in passing his sweeping agenda to transform America into a European-style, government-controlled, free-market hostile country.
I don’t mind at all saying that I hope he fails.
If I were a praying man, I’d pray for it.
I am just really really surprised that Obama would comment on such a local issue that he admittedly knew little about. It recalls his relationship to Pastor “Goddamn America” Wright. I suppose in that light it shouldn’t surpise me, but I truly beleived he was leagues above the race baiting Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton types.
Paul, as I said above, THIS is the Obama that I and others warned this country about. He is in way over his head. He has cultivated an image that is completly at odds with reality. He is inexperienced, and this is one way that it shows. This is the sort of thing ANY exectutive at ANY level learns very early, you DON’T MAKE PUBLIC STATEMENTS IF YOU DON”T KNOW THE FACTS.
This is the sort of thing I have been taught in my corporate management classes. It has been pounded into my brain. “We are investigating the issue and will have a response at the appropriate time.” Etc. This is the sort of reaction that should be knee-jerk programmed into any true executive.
But it’s worse. He not only spouts off at the mouth inappropriately, but HE CHOOSES THE WRONG SIDES! He is this nations CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, and he just made a public statement that law enforcement in this country is ROUTINELY RACIST. If he HAD to make ANY statement, he should have sided with the POLICE first, NOT the accused. Who you side with in a debate says a whole lot about you as a person, and what this says is that Obama is far, far from a “post-racial” President. In fact it reveals that he has racial issues of his own.
As if that’s not bad enough, when people CRITICIZE HIS STUPIDITY, he BLAMES THE PRESS for “fixating” on his comments. Now he’s not only inexperienced and demonstrating poor judgment, now he’s just WHINING because the press, for once, is not fawning all over him.
I keep saying, this is bad for Obama. Much worse than he realizes.
But I’m enjoying the heck out of it. It is my opinion that Obama has repeatedly showed a lack of understanding of the first rule of holes. Once he’s in one, he just asks for bigger shovels.
…. and one more point. This not only demonstrates fundamental inexperience as an executive who is actually held accountable for his statements (as opposed to a Senator or community organizer who can say whatever pops into their heads), this demonstrates a really fundamental political incompetence. This whole thing erupted at Obama’s healthcare political theater. Obama has essentially bet his Presidency on passing health care, and he did not keep his eye on THAT ball. Any sufficiently politically savvy person in his shoes when asked that question SHOULD have said, “Thanks for that question, but tonight I’m dealing with health care. Health care is the most important issue on the table right now. Do you have a question about health care?”
The result was that for the next three or four days instead of stories about Obama’s health care initiative and how it’s going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, we get stories, editorials, interviews, etc. on the GatesGate thing.
In politics this is known as “losing control of the narrative.”
If it’s this easy to throw Obama a curve and watch himself screw himself into the dirt trying to hit it, we’re gonna have a long and entertaining three and a half years. And remember, this was his SIGNATURE INITIATIVE! It’s like watching a batter strike out with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth in the World Series because a butterfly caught his eye. Remember the first basemen who blew the world series by letting a ball go through his legs? That’s OBAMA!!!
Looks like Obama has successfully diffused this rather quickly.
Looks like some here have vastly overestimated how much this will hurt him.
I agree his initial comments were counterproductive. He has now admitted as much, and that’s what most reasonable folks were looking for.
RogerR:
We’ll see how this turns out. I’ll keep an eye on the polls, not the commentary here. Besides, Obama would never have offered his non-apology if he didn’t agree with me that this was hurting him. The question is how much damage HAS been done, and how much more damage will be done by him saying he didn’t “calibrate” his words properly.
If I were the police officer I’d be saying “calibrate? What’s that supposed to mean? You said ‘stupidly’ when ‘imbecilic’ might have been better?”
Classic non-apology behavior…
Also… you are missing a key point. This has already hurt him tremendously by taking virtually ALL of the momentum he was trying to build up on health care and putting that back to zero. If his health care bill now does not pass, this could very well be the reason why.
And if you don’t think that would hurt Obama… well, I don’t know what to say about that.
I will grant you this, it does show that Obama finally took heed of the first rule of holes and stopped digging.
If President Obama so successfully “diffused” the situation, why is it that I keep seeing news stories, blog posts, and other comments about the controversy?
It’s probably because, while he admitted that his original comments were counterproductive, he didn’t really apologize for them. And he’s continued to inject himself into the situation, which is the antithesis of the first rule of holes.
I doubt this will the factor that derails health care reform. Instapundit’s reports of ACORN rallies for reform becoming Tea Parties will have a greater effect, in my opinion.
It might, however, make the F.O.P. a little less willing to support him in 3 years.
Derek:
It will be impossible to “prove” that this was the tipping point for health care. However, the polls showed a majority of Americans supported health care BEFORE this incident and a majority of Americans OPPOSED it AFTER this incident.
No matter what else happened in those two or three days, Obama did NOT get his message out.
However, a message DID get out those two or three days, it just wasn’t the message Obama wanted to get out. As I said, I can’t PROVE that this was a major reason in the shift from support to opposition in health care, but I can pretty much guarantee you that change in attitude vastly changed the willingness of “moderate” Democrats in the House to swallow another dose of hemlock (after the Cap and Tax debacle) for Obama.
My read on politics is that Obama had to stop that bleeding, and his whole dog and pony show on Wednesday was dedicated to doing so, and instead of the American people waking up Thursday morning saying “hmmm, that Obama seems pretty convincing about health care” they woke up saying “Geez, Obama called the cops in Cambridge stupid? Really?”
These things matter. His numbers have dropped a few more points today. Tomorrow or the next day we’ll see the first poll results from polls taken only AFTER this incident. I suspect we will see another few points erosion in Obama’s numbers, and when you are right at the 50% line in your approval ratings, those few points can be devastating to your ability to twist arms in Congress.
I’ll be watching closely to see how things end up. But my gut tells me that Obama’s core team in the White House is telling Obama “Damn man, can’t you keep your mouth shut about shit you don’t know about?!?!”
One other problem for O is this is the first time he’s offended a powerful unionized group.* This won’t be forgotten.
Also, how many times has Obama said something and had to “recalibrate” or “clarify” it later?
*Not that I’m a huge fan of cop unions – or prison guard unions – as they’ve done much to bankrupt my home state of CA, but pissing them off needlessly isn’t real smart.
CC: I think you’re right in that the incident didn’t HELP “stop that bleeding.” I just think we were already past the tipping point in public opinion on this issue before the President passed judgment on the Cambridge police. There’s enough out there already to make people question the reform bill. The incident in question just makes it harder for the President to “orate” the reform into being.
foobarista: I like police officers. I like teachers. I like nurses. I like fire fighters. But unions, not so much. As none of is us as stupid as all of us, unions generate “collective stupidity fields,” where otherwise intelligent individuals subordinate their own opinions to the groupthink.
Derek, you may be right, and maybe Obama was already nosediving before this event. I think he was. But I think he still had some mojo left last week ans was pressuring “moderate” Democrats on Health Care using that remaining “majority” that supported him.
I try to react to the situations that I see, and from what I saw Obama was at the tipping point on healthcare Wednesday (which was why he was on TV, he and his team knew that), and instead of pulling back from the brink, with his Cambridge comments, he essentially plunged over the edge.
It is no coincidence, in my opinion that in the next two days after the Cambridge thing, you saw conservative Democrats openly rebel against Nancy Pelosi. MAYBE they would have done so anyway, but I don’t think so. I think Obama personally offended THEM with his Cambridge comments and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Just my opinion of course.
… oh, and one other comment. It is no coincidence that Hillary Clinton has chosen this moment to begin asserting herself and presenting a much more Hawkish foreign policy approach than the equivocating, sniveling appeasement of her boss.
She can read polls too.
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