At 6pm today, President Obama, Henry Louis Gates, and Cambridge Police Officer James Crowley will assemble at the White House and knock back a few cold ones:
President Obama will welcome a well-known scholar and the police officer who arrested him to the White House on Thursday, in an effort to put to an end the racially charged controversy caused by the arrest near Harvard University earlier this month.
Obama, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass., police are scheduled to gather over beers at a picnic table outside the Oval Office, joined by their families. The White House hopes the meeting will transform a public relations misstep for the nation’s first African American president into a “teachable moment” for improving the nation’s race relations.
Obama invited the two men to the White House on Friday, the same day he publicly expressed regret for saying July 22 at a nationally televised news conference that Cambridge police had “acted stupidly” by arresting Gates at his home. The remark ignited a backlash from conservative commentators and law enforcement officials, who accused Obama of speaking rashly and being anti-police.
The media, of course, has been all over this non-story to the point of keeping us up-to-date on the crucial question of who would be drinking which beer:
The informal meeting, where White House officials said Obama will drink a Bud Light, Crowley a Blue Moon and Gates a Red Stripe, will not attempt to address larger racial issues in more than a symbolic way.
Of course, it’s unclear just how informal it’s going to be now that Crowley has decided to bring his attorney and representatives from Cambridge’s police union along:
A union official and attorney will accompany Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley to tomorrow’s “beer summit” with President Obama and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Crowley will be joined at the White House by Dennis O’Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, and Alan McDonald, the attorney for the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, the Cambridge Police Patrol Officers Association and the Massachusetts Municipal Police Coalition.
So, at least one of the participants is expecting that the “Beer Summit” will be something more than just a sitting down and knocking down a few beers while arguing over which baseball is better, the White Sox or the Red Sox.
Personally, I don’t see what the point of all of this is to begin with. It’s pretty obvious that Obama made a mistake when he waded into the middle of the Gates arrest imbroglio last week, and he’s paid a price for it in the poll numbers. There’s very little up-side, and a lot of down-side in keeping this issue one the table and in the headlines, especially when you keep saying there are more important issues out there.
This has to qualify as one of the dumbest political moves I’ve ever seen a President make.
Congratulations, President Obama. You have now taken the stupid idea crown away from 30+ year holder Gerald Ford for WIN (Whip Inflation Now).
I seriously disagree that this has affected his poll numbers negatively, if at all. I honestly think that the healthcare issue, along with the continued recession and the failure of the stimulus bill have contributed to his fall in the polls. There have been much greater political mistakes than this. Iran-Contra? Monica Lewinsky? Watergate?
// I seriously disagree that this has affected his poll numbers negatively, if at all. I honestly think that the healthcare issue, along with the continued recession and the failure of the stimulus bill have contributed to his fall in the polls. There have been much greater political mistakes than this. Iran-Contra? Monica Lewinsky? Watergate? //
Agreed. OP is a fucking idiot.