In still what I claim is one of the more odd things for a President to ever personally inject himself in the middle of
the AP reports:
BOSTON (AP) - Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. says he is ready to move on from his arrest by a white police officer, hoping to use the encounter to improve fairness in the criminal justice system and saying "in the end, this is not about me at all."
Poll numbers have not exactly worked well for Obama on the matter:
Obama also
got hammered on his response to the arrest of Henry Gates. In polling taken on Friday and Saturday, after the White House has started its retreat on Obama’s assertion that the police “acted stupidly,” only 26% believed that Obama’s answer was “good” or “excellent”. Sixty-three percent rated it “fair” or poor”, as did 40% of Democrats and 67% of independents. Black voters supported Obama 71%-28%, but they voted for Obama in the last election 96%-4%, which indicates ambivalence even in this demographic (only 21% rated it “excellent”). Obama lost a plurality of the youngest voters, 49%-45%, but lost all others by large majorities ranging from 60%-73%.
But perhaps you're asking yourself the question, "Why on earth did Obama take the bait, and 'go there'?"
Simple...
when it comes to saying slanderous things about Police... he's been conditioned to:
If you're the leader of the free world, there may be a few things that take you by surprise from time to time. Planes flying into buildings of your largest city, or reporters from your hometown asking you a question in a press conference, one thing is for sure--these surprises will often tell everyone watching a little bit about who you really are.
So if a reporter from your hometown, asks you a question that you probably shouldn't weigh in on then just say, "I have no comment on that at this time."
Also... If you intend on answering questions that you do not have the facts on, don't be blaming the media the next day and claiming they are "distracting" the American people from the important issue. Most Americans believe that the integrity of the President of the United States is a fairly important issue.
By the way if you'd like to read the actual police report to see how those on the scene gave testimony of what happened... Got that for you here.
Pretty astounding all the way around, but no worries. The 'O'ministration says adding alcohol will solve everything... A Malt Liquor in the White House, another GREAT use of valuable for the leader of the free world!