Ouch!

Ouch! Video via email from J. Let's face it, regardless of how you feel about Obama on the Gates matter, at least a few things are clear. No one is talking about Health Care today (Memeorandum is all Gatesgate). Then along with many criticizing the speech on its own merits, (see here) contrast this quote from the orator in chief with the 20 second video below.

"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 he Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home," Obama said in response to a question from the Chicago Sun-Times's Lynn Sweet.

Comments

[Mike2Cents]

Touche, indeed.
He should have stayed out of the Gates issue...or at least have been much more restrained in judgment when commenting. By injecting himself into it is now assured that there is no chance there can be reasonable discussion about the issue...if that was ever even possible to begin with.
O'Reilly will roll out Ayers and Wright, Hannity will pontificate on Byrd's past KKK affiliation, Beck will cry about A.C.O.R.N., Lou Dobbs will say something stupid, and someone somewhere will have some crass sign about it at a 'tea party'.

[Jay David]

Great video clip ! I guess when you've spent 20 years going to a church that spreads black racism then it's hard to actually be "post-racial". So much for Obama "bringing the nation together". Single handedly this empty suit is setting race relations back twenty years.

[Lala]

Smoking gun has Crowley's statement

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html

[Alex]

And should someone not have a sign about this or be outraged? For the President to stand up and ADMIT he doesn't know the facts and yet still pass judgment shows a remarkable lack of tack and foresight. This coming from an alleged genius ex-law prof, who should know a little more about unfounded allegations and running off at the mouth in regards to something you don't know anything about. But of course he never had a real job in the legal field (or any other for that matter) so he doesn't know or care about the consequences of such a statement.

[tim maguire]

Agreed, Alex. Which is precisely why Obama should have stayed out of the issue. No good will come of it, but much time will be wasted.

[Mrs. Peperium]

Never forget, this is the president who taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago.

Heh. I can't wait to hear Mark Levin take Obama out to the woodshed...

The poor Obamacons. What blinded by education fools they were.

[mark l.]

if obama wants to revisit civil rights, we can create a system Jim Crow law enforcement...

whites can only be arrested by whites, blacks can only be arrested by blacks.

[syn]

"president who taught Constitutional Law"

and hired because of his Harvard degree; Obama's alma mater is proving his ivy-league icon produces super-duper smart people!

[The Ace]

What is funny is that the President's spokesman Gibbs is now claiming that Obama didn't call the policeman "stupid"

These people are so incoherent and such brazen liars it is sad.

[WBestPresidentEver]

Obama is the RACIST. The very idea that he would speak about the matter not knowing all the details amazes me.
He just used the oportunity to bring up racism.
It is a KNOW FACT that more blacks and hispanics commit crimes in this country. Where you live has nothing to do with who gets into crime.
How bout responsibility for your own actions.
No one "forces" anyone to hold a gun to someones head or rob someone or steal from someone.
Obama is so racist it is pathetic !!
You should look no further than all the people he has appointed, and selected to be in his cabinet. Even Nasa.
They even have to sign a paper saying they will be faithful to him and his beliefs.
GASP....So even the white folks he picked are racist ! Pitiful.

[mark l.]

one small point about the character of gates...

there are two roles he can occupy. educator or judge.

the judgment response:
"why? becuase I am a black man in america?"

the educator:
laugh off the incorrect interpretation, which can easily be rectified.

the problem for gates is that his judgment for the officer, could equally be appled to his own actions. The only distinction that could be made is that the officer was fufilling his duty, while gates was eschewing his role as 'educator'.

[John Henry Eden]

I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts....except that there was a black man and a white man involved. In other words, it is obvious the black man was justified in his anger while the white man did something stupid.

The Failure fails America again.

[mark l.]

from personal experience:

I was once pulled over for driving a blue audi and being within a certain age range.

my offense? I fit the profile of a 21 year old, driving a blue audi, who had just executed his father, in front of his handcuffed mother, before turning it one her.

after it was determined that I WAS NOT the person, 40 minutes, everyone holstered their guns and my handcuffs were removed. The one exception?

As I was bending over to pick up the contents of my pockets which had been unceremoniously dumped on the pavement, a heavy set black officer, weilding a shotgun, screamed "don't move"! it was enough that the contents of my bladder almost joined my trinkets, on the pavement.

I just assumed that the officer was performing his job. Given the gates response, should I now view the officer's actions as racist?

gate character and belief system about whites, if demonstrated by an officer, would preclude him from ever holding a weapon or serving as an officer.

[mark l.]

just caught the pic of the arresting officer...

wondering how many african americans believe he looks like mark furman.
white officer, short brown hair...must be a racist.

[Anon]

This just in from the Boston Herald.

The officer in question was hand picked [by a black police commissioner] to teach a class, on you guessed it, racial profiling, which he does along with another black officer and has done so for the last 5 years.

I beg Professor Gates to sue!

[Effra]

Here's what Gates should have said and done: "Hello, officer; I'm Henry Louis Gates, Jr. You can call me Skip as my friends do. This is my residence. Here is my driver's license."

End of story.

If this happened to me, I'd do exactly as described above. I'd also say: "Hey, thank you, Officer, for keeping an eye on my and my neighbors' properties in this area."

See, people like Gates can't see the big picture. Gates is still metaphorically living in the ghetto.

[Lala]

Did the Won pay all those parking tickets he got when he lived in Cambridge? Maybe that's why he doesn't like their police.

[mark l.]

I take it that Gates did not write his thesis on the failures of Liberia.

[Mrs. Peperium]

I can't speak for for African Americans but the arresting officer bears a strong resemblance to Emilio Estevez rather than Mark Furman. So we already know who to cast for the miniseries! Too bad Sir John Gielgud isn't around. He'd be a perfect Gates.

[seekeronos]

"--- GASP....So even the white folks he picked are racist ! Pitiful. ---"

Sad, but so true. But to be more accurate, they are full of self loathing and more likely, lacking a brain.

[Wahoo Willie]

Strange this. I have more than one alarm systems between the hacienda and rental property. Have set one off accidently more than once or gotten to rental property before the cops. Have had white cops, black cops, male and female cops show up. In each and every case an officer asked for ID, etc pretty much the same questions the guy asked Gates....course none asked me to prove I was a harvard professor, either because I didnt claim to be or because we're 900 miles from there, whatever. Of course I was never kicking in the back door when they rolled up either. I'm sure the "whitey's to blame for everything" crowd will have the blinders on as usual but this is really a case of class more than race. How dare this public servant be so bold as to ask any of the elite class for ID. Could be worse, coulda been a Kennedy and who knows what happens to the poor flat foot. Guess again that Obie showed what he's made of and you aint seen nothin' yet.

[John Henry Eden]

Obama... a disgrace to all those who voted for him. Obama.... a disgrace to all of America.

[mark l.]

i'll buy the estevez look alike theory.

i'm seeing otto, repo man.

[amy bowling]

umm he clearly stated that he doesn't know how race plays into this but the act of arresting someone in there own home was stupid. white people in general are stupid really. they will always take something and run with it. surround there entire life with it. talk about it like the situation will change. why would you say he needed to stay out of it. this is someone he knows personally, he can say what he wants, because he is OUR president does not mean he is not human. Here is the kicker right here. Most of the family that he knows and has grown up with is WHITE, and so is he. I swear, most white people are the most dumb ignorant people you will ever encounter.

[North Dallas Thirty]

"white people in general are stupid really."

Yup, no racism there. LOL.

[mark l.]

"I swear, most white people are the most dumb ignorant people you will ever encounter."

so, which african country has the geniuses?

[WBestPresidentEver]

HE IS NOT A BLACK MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. HE IS A HALF N HALF. I am sick of everyone saying people can't stand it because we have a black man in the white house.
H I S "M O T H E R" W A S A S "W H I T E" A S "W H I T E" C A N B E !!!

Obama being a half n' half has nothing to do whatsoever with him being qualified to be President.

He is certainly not that. I don't care if he is purple, pink, green, white, or black. He is simply unqualified.

We have an totally unqualified person in the white house.

He has no clue about what is going on. He has handed everything over to a bunch of Chicago Mobsters to figure out for him.

His administration is so crooked it would make Al Capone look like a glowing ANGEL.

He knew nothing about the situation with that man and should have not said anything. Then this whole thing would not have even been brought up.

Lesson learned....keep your mouth SHUT if you do not know what you are talking about. He was not there, you were not there, but I do understand many witnesses were there and heard it all. The truth will be told.

It is pretty damn bad when a police officer can't do his job without being screamed and hollered at for simply trying to answer a call and doing his damn job.

UNREAL...If he had not come to the mans house to answer the call that was called in, I guess the man would said that the police department does not care about his safety because he is black.

Black folks are the ones that are RACIST. They prove it every single day.
There are a few that are not. But...a very limited few ! I am very grateful for them !

Get over yourselfs people.

Obama needs to get over himself. HE IS NOT GOD !!!