White House Beer Garden
Both Henry Louis Gates and Sergeant Crowley should get some credit for demonstrating their tenacity at the White House this evening. While President Obama and Vice President Biden ditched their jackets, Gates and Crowley wore them despite the heat and humidity that afflict Washington in the summer. Relaxing in shirt sleeves was supposed to convey the attitude that the meeting was really no big deal, just a few folks, as Obama put it, enjoying a brew at the end of a hard working day.
Of course it was anything but. Most people don't show up in dark suits, as did Gates and Crowley, just to have a beer late at night. Everyone had something to gain from the meeting -- Crowley got to demonstrate he's not some racist ogre, Gates that he can demonstrate some forbearance toward his erstwhile tormentor, Obama that he's not prejudging either party, and Biden... well, what did Biden have to prove? That he could let someone else get in a word edgewise during the confabulation?
For all the oddity of the meeting, there was something touching about the skill with which Obama, after beginning so poorly, managed to unite the formerly bickering parties. George W. Bush wouldn't have invited such adversaries to the White House, let alone been able to crack open a brew or any other alcoholic drink. For all the potshots at Obama as some Ivy League elitist, he wasn't serving Chardonnay, but the common man's drink, while engaging in his favorite, and most popular, role of conciliator.
Whether turning the White House into a beer garden can convert other adversaries into friends is an open question. Alcohol has always been a good presidential lubricant. Richard Nixon used to sail up and down the Potomac in the presidential yacht Sequoia with his chums enjoying a few stiff drinks. Maybe Obama should invite the heads of North and South Korea to his backyard or the presidents of Russia and Georgia to make nice in his backyard, while he pops open a few cold ones.
Perhaps the Gates-Crowley powwow hasn't just opened a new chapter in discussions about race, but also in world history.
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THE PRESIDENT HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD.
President Barack Obama was absolutely correct when he stood by his assertion that police did not need to arrest Gates after he had proved it was his own home.
Obama said in an interview with ABC television that he has "extraordinary respect" for the challenges and hardships that law enforcement officers face every day in their line of work. But at the same time he said he didn't think the arrest was necessary.
GATES HAD PROVEN THAT HE WAS IN HIS OWN HOME.
THERE WAS NO NEED TO ARREST HIM.
President Obama said "cooler heads should have prevailed" in the incident. But he did not retract his initial statement that he thought police had "acted stupidly".
i agree with President Obama. Bottomline: Crowley caused this entire problem.
Once Gates had proven that he was in his own home, Crowley should have exited.
This is not rocket science. We all know what was going on here.
Crowley "acted stupidly" .
An observation I have on Obama's resolution to the repressed/repressor confrontation is that his single action--bringing the two opposing parties to the table (well, picnic table)--was the tacit ultimate goal of so many bruising factions during the sixties. One remembers the sign one often saw, echoed I am sure, out of the desperation of the dozens of conflicts that saw no resolution between protestors and police--"Off the Pigs." This single image is carried by police nationwide today as baggage from those tumultuous times. Many protestors and many causes, and the chasms widened between them. Any of those conflicts would have been delighted to end up in a summit of discussion of differences.
It seems that Obama picked up the baton exactly as it laid, picked it up without loss of time or yardage.
Surely the police, remembering how Daley's military-type handling of the Democratic Convention was brutal, over-responsive and singularly deleterious to our common national history, can see the irony of Obama coming from Chicago and holding no obvious politicall
A call to the Blue . . . nobody is yelling "Off the Pigs" these days. Do your job, walk with pride, protect and defend, and work hard to erase the racism that you must admit exists in too many corridors of your halls.
The Gates-Crowley incident was not "Racial Profiling," it was "Contempt of Cop," a frequent occurrence with a high incidence of race and class bias. If they are wise, Dr. Gates and Sgt. Crowley will do a joint study of the “Contempt of Cop” issue. Sgt. Crowley (who taught a class on racial profiling at the Lowell Police Academy) could instruct officers how to avoid this abuse of discretionary police powers of arrest.
See:
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Gates was uncooperative, combative and abusive. A witness outside said he was yelling, and was "agitated" and "slightly out of control." His outrageous and disgusting behavior is solely responsiblle for the escalation of this incident.
SURELY YOUR KIDDING, OR TOTALLY OUT OF IT. OBAMA IS LIKE A CAT IN THE LITTER BOX, TRYING TO COVER UP WHAT IS OBVIOUSLY HIS TRUE PERSON.
Well what president is truely free to speak their mind? At least Obama is more open than the Bush Cheney regime ever was. He is a moderate president whatever else you feel about him, and a moderate president doesn't frighten me in the least. I do not get where all of these harsh reactions to him are founded on. He is the most sane/logical president in my memory.
He is NOT a moderate president. He wants people to think he's a moderate president.
His "true person" doesn't offend me at all. So what if he used the word "stupidity?" "Covering up" what? If anything has me ticked about this whole deal it's that Obama back pedaled at all. White people, as in most of this country and its power structure, have to realize that police personnel have been abusing other races for a long time. If Gates were white, the police would have acted differently. You insinuate that Obama's "true person" must be some angry black man that hates "whitey." Please give the man some credit for doing his best in an impossible situation. Depending on the crowd, he is either too black, or too white. What he is, is doing the best he can. If I blame anyone for this debacle, it's the reporter who asked a hot-button, useless question at the close of a good Q&A about health care. "A cat in the litter box..."??? You are "totally out of it"... as in devoid of empathy and the ability to see a moment in a broader context.
And what black america needs to realize is that they have not cornered the market on feeling they were treated unfairly by the police. If you believe that things would have been different had Gates been white then you are placing 100% of the fault on Officer Crowley. How is it you don't see any fault in Gates behavior. He should have kept his mouth closed and complied with the requests being made by the officer but his arrogance got the best of him. I think it has become obvious to many people that Professor Gates has a chip on his shoulder. As for President Obama I think he wished he could have taken back his words. Blaming the reporter who asked the question is ridiculous. The President should have known better. When he said he might be biased because he was friends with Gates that should have been where he stopped talking but he continued on. I sat watching in disbelief that he continued. Yes he does have a tough job. He can't win for losing but I hope he has learned a powerful lesson from this situation and that is not to answer hot button questions when he doesn't know the full extent of the situation.
With all due respect, the only "stupidity" that I see is with the President and the WH- first for wading into a local issue unnecessarily, then making a snap judgement in blaming the police, and then refusing to shut up for days---I would expect this kind of diplomacy and the President's time to be spent on lobbying Senators and Congressmen or the tyrants of the world to make the world a safer place.
President Obama comes out of this looking very naieve and comical- not Presidential at all
I thought he came out looking great. He's a man of the people, drinks what they do. I'm sure Gates and Crowley were a bit nervous being in the White House with the President of the US. But I think it was good public relations on both sides.
I'm an Obama supporter, but I thought this was one of the most ridiculous shams I have ever seen. Let's hope we can all move on soon from this vastly overblown incident..
Sadly, I have to agree.
It may have been just a photo-op, but it worked. You could sense that everyone was trying to work this out.
"Obama, after beginning so poorly, managed to unite the formerly bickering parties."
Your kidding. Right?
Its kind of funny how the media has pushed this political get together with alcohol as some kind of crazy anomaly, when historically it is as much a part of America as baseball and apple pie. It is documented that the founders of our country drank quite a bit when mulling over tough decisions. Booze and politics really do historically go hand and hand.
Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution would have been written if the delegates to the two conventions hadn't been allowed unlimited amounts of rum.
I will drink to that lol!
This is not about race. It's about policing. The current police-mind-set is where the problem lies. Then the gun touting that invariably follows. Take away their guns and it would be seen what cowards they are. The second amendment (though many will attack that notion) was about giving guns to white settlers so they could shoot Native Americans if they tried to take their land back. If the police had their guns taken from them less people (so called criminals) would want or need to possess a gun. Possessing a gun creates the necessity for more guns; it's a self fulfilling necessity. In spite of the 6th Commandment "Thou shalt not Kill' Guns are Killing instruments. Whom-ever has the best gun wins the argument.
It's the reverend wright white hating mindset that certain people have that is the problem.
YOU have never listened to Reverend Wright in context for what he expressed although rough and raw...was absolute truth. But one must have ears to hear total content of message which is why Father pflagher was not offended by him. Who happens to be white himself. For truth has no color ...it just is. He stated that this country had a history of doing evil and the roost came back. Well, all one would have to do is traced back the roots of terroristic acts...and American fingerprints are someone to be found. This by no means exempt those that practiced evil attacks or suicide ...it is no justification for the acts of terrors...
I take it you are white ... and voted for McCain. You're so transparent. Shoot Rev. Wright and the whole world problems are solved???? Yeah!
The Hollywood-ization of this issue is a disgrace. We're not in the post-racial stage as we're stuck in the trivialize
As Taylor Marsh said, "he stepped in [it], then he stepped up." As illadvised as his remarks were, they resulted in a meeting that would have never taken place between these two men had he not made them. Black folks would still be demading that the President say something. And Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh et al would be recruiting Crowley to lead their movement of agrieved white men.
The whole thing was a crock, anyway. MSNBC had a friggin' countdown to "beer-thirty", for crying out loud! I'm surprised they didn't do this on Friday afternoon to throw the media off the scent of what Congress might have been up to. Probably a "WTF" moment for every other nation on the face of the planet.
I wonder how this particular media outlet (Huff post) would have reacted if it were Bush holding a beer summit? They would have had a field day.
What can you expect? Obama can do NO WRONG.
What's next? Tequilla shot summit?
Are you talking about the same media that never demanded that Bush apologize for leaving ten of thousands of poor black people stranded in New Orleans, but now thinks that this President should publicly apologize to Officer Crowley?
or apologize for leading young men and women into a war based on a lie?
It was Crowley suggestion that the men get together and have a beer and the President obliged. Changed your perspective I bet doesn't it ? For now it probably is alright in your eyes sight. After all, it was not the big bad President.
Beer Gardens have already given birth to political movements now haven't they...?
Why are so many people fawning over the president because he brought these two together? Is that what we expect from our president? He doesn't have anything more important to do beside arbitrating issues between two people? When are my wife and I getting our beer party meeting? We've got a few differences too.
Geez!
If Obama made gold fall out of the sky - you would be complaining that it's hitting you on the head!
We get it that you hate Obama, but you stressing out on his every move is going to backfire on you by taking a toll on your personal health. As I learned during the Bush years - sometimes you just have to let all it go.
I like that one!
As racist as the O'Haters are becoming, they would say something like, "In the White areas, it's raining 10K gold, but in the "hoods, the gold is pure 24K! Perhaps Obama DOES have a problem with Whites..."
Another sufferer of Obama Derangement Syndrome. Go take your pills and lie down.
After you.
This was not a small issue. It was a point of contention in the entire country. Racial divides and tension was rising great all behind the one word that the President used...the word "stupidly.
"When are my wife and I getting our beer party meeting?"
More than chopping brush every other week down in Texas. And an example to some to let bygones be bygones, especially when no harm was done.
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