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Obama Regrets The Stupid Comment

Posted by JOE WINDISH, Technology Editor in Politics.
Jul 24th, 2009 | Comments

I sure do give him credit. That guy sees just about everything as a teachable moment! He just is not willing to let this stupid (er, did I say “stupid”?) issue get in the way of things:

President Obama said Friday that he “could have calibrated” his words more carefully in the controversy over the arrest of a black Harvard professor by a white police officer, but added that there had been an “overreaction” by both sides in a case that touched off an intense discussion about race in America.

“To the extent that my choice of words didn’t illuminate, but rather contributed to more media, I think, that was unfortunate,” Mr. Obama said, making an unusual unannounced visit to the White House briefing room in an effort to ease the controversy.

Actually, I don’t see the word “regret” anyplace in the text of the NYTimes article quoted above, even as it is headlined, Obama Says He Regrets His Language on Gates Arrest. So I turned to Fox News:

President Obama stopped short of an apology to Sgt. James Crowley on Friday for saying he “acted stupidly” for arresting black Harvard scholar Henry Lewis Gates Jr. [sic, emphasis mine], but said he should have chosen his words more carefully.

At an impromptu appearance at the daily White House briefing, Obama said he spoke with Crowley over the phone, and said he wanted to share a beer with Crowley and Gates at the White House.

“Because this has been ratcheting up and I helped contribute to ratcheting it up, I want to make clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically and I could have calibrated those words differently.”

“My sense is you’ve got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve it the way the wanted to resolve it,” Obama added.

Yo! No regret?

White House spokesman Roberts Gibbs said early Friday that the president regrets that the media have gotten all worked up over the controversy and been distracted from other more substantive issues such as health care.

I changed my opening line away from the glib, “I wish Obama hadn’t…,” even though that was my reaction on seeing the headline. But after watching the video I am left very, very, impressed.

That’s not just because Obama is willing and able to walk out into that briefing room and apologize — even if only nearly so — it is because the full text of what he said (which I still can’t find to link to) was so simple and yet so substantial.

Obama has taken the news cycle back and, I expect, stopped the damage that otherwise would have carried through the weekend news shows.

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casualobserver

I give credit where credit is due.........Obama usually catches on to when he needs to step up and backpeddle, usually a couple of days too slowly and usually watered downto save face a bit, but overall, I agree he doesn't go with the stonewall forever.

qwert321

Why should he apologize for expressing what he truly feels?

And why would anyone who was offended by his thoughts about white police officers feel better now that he is closing his true feelings to the public?

JWindish

QWERT, That's simple. Because whether he believes it or not -- and who of us can know? He may have parsed his lawyerly words in such a way as to believe them -- that is the way of the media world we live in!

Lit3Bolt

No, Obama's an Afrocentric Socialist Nationalist Muslim Brotherhood-cum-laude Malcolm X Robert Ayers terrorist God-King. He deserves the firestorm of white resentment that's coming. /jwest

In other news, police can still arrest you on a whim and asserting your rights lands you in jail and it's better to meekly aquiesce to your betters. Viva la Policia de los Estados Unidos!

roro80

Or maybe, qwert, sometimes even if we say something we believe, we say it in a way that's disrespectful or hurtful. It's absolutely possible to feel bad about the way you say something without feeling bad about the content or meaning of the statement. He didn't take back anything he said, he just apologized for the way his opinion was expressed.

qwert321

roro80, but that's exactly the point. People who were offended were not offended by the delivery but rather by the content:
1. Gates was justified in his anger
2. Crowley's actions were wrong

Why would Obama not taking back anything he said satisfy anybody?

roro80

The word "stupidly" has gotten more press and more outrage than anything else Obama said. Those who hold that it was 100% Gates' fault and that it was beyond the pale to suggest any poor behavior by Crawley won't be satisfied, and those who think that race has no place in a discussion at all will also remain unsatisfied. However, the sizable number of people -- the author of this post, for example -- who may have agreed with Obama's overall message while disagreeing with the use of the word "stupidly" will likely think this is a satifactory response.

Superman1974

Well this proves again the Obama is not qualifies to be President and EVERYONE the voted for him is a IDIOT for following the wagon.....

tony82

Personally this may sound bad, but i believe once the older generation is dead and gone ie, Jessie Jackson and older rednecks and other generations that teach hate, our community's and country will be a better place to live... People label me as caucasion because i'm white but if we want to get technical about it, i am german and cherokee indian. As cynical as this sounds i will enjoy the day the older generation dies off... I'm sick and tired of all the damn politics and its tyranny. God the sooner you take these die hard racist "whites, blacks, asians, hispanics etc" the better life will be for the remaining peoples... Most of our new generation 80's and up could give a sh*t about races and who's who because i have made relations with what ever people's i've come in contact with including muslim's... I have dated black,white,mexican, indian, etc and finally married an asian... This is from a "White" Male ok.... So this race sh*t needs to stop it's bullsh*t and Politics that cause it... Every politician knows he's got to stir something up just to get what he wants... For god's sake STOP THE RACIAL BULLSH*T... THank You....

SteveK

Barack Obama is a class act... At least the Crowley, Gates camps [are] pleased by president's phone calls .

It seems that our new President is able to multitask... Imagine his predecessor trying to both a) be an American citizen; AND, b) calm (or even admit to) any storm that he unintentionally rekindled.

There's hope for us still.

qwert321

Well, the white base seems to be satisfied. I wonder how the moderates and the black base will respond? I guess we'll find out Monday when the daily tracking numbers come out.

roro80

I think portions of the white base, as well as the Cambridge police force, were the only ones offended in the first place.

DaGoat

White base? What the hell is that?

wendiVenturaCA

Tony82 kinda says what i would like to say, except for the cursing. I am what is called white and i am tired of black people decrying racism at the drop of the hat. I think "white" America has bent over backward to make "black" Americans feel more comfortable.... we have a black president for God's sake!!

Everytime someone plays the race card, they are perpetuating racism. From what i've read, office Crowley acted approrpiately to ask Mr. Gates for his i.d..... Gates shouldn't have been arrested, unless he failed to produce his i.d. and instead kept asking him for his badge number. Gates sounds like a racist to me.

And Obama sounds like a racist to me too. It's unfortunate that he could only talk the talk but could not walk the walk. I will definately not be voting for him next term, i will remember this incident. Sad day for America..... i think we were ready for a black president, but i don't think we got one that was not racist. It's nice that there are black police officers who are not racist though, such as office Lashley.

pacatrue

Well, I don't anyone to die off, but fighting the same old battles gets really old. There's several people on these boards still going after the hippies who made them so mad in 1968.

pacatrue

DaGoat, one rarely sees it on these boards from people of all political persuasions, but if you wander into unguarded places, such as, for me the Yahoo Buzz boards, the racism against Obama is right on the surface. There was a science posting about a new monkey found in the Amazon and the board was filled with black people like Obama or monkeys jokes. This is the pattern, not the exception.

That's a little bit of an aside, but there's a lot more hatred of Obama due to race than I really expected.

pacatrue

Going back on subject, a particularly nice way Obama could have expressed his comments today was "I expressed myself stupidly."

qwert321

>>>White base? What the hell is that?<<<

Progressives? Liberals? Hippies? Communists? The Great Evil On Earth That Must Be Purged Through Divine Nuclear Hellfire? I don't know. So what the heck do you people want to be called nowadays?

silkee

i think this is Mr. Obama's GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT in his first year...to be one racist president of this country. i do not think he is really thinking of the welfare of this country...i do not even think he LOVES this country and its people. if he were, he would not make the economic condition of this country worse, instead he keeps borrowing and might even lead this country into its bankruptcy. and then making STUPID comment. hearing the word STUPID coming from the president's mouth is very unethical. no wonder our children nowadays are found of calling each other STUPID. the more they will find it acceptable because the president used the word in his own remark. Mr. Obama is all but lip service to the american people. next election will be in 3 years...definitely campaign will start in less than 2 years...wonder if the public will still give him another term.

pacatrue

Silkee if you are upset about the word Stupid, I hope you never heard some of the words that came out of Cheney's mouth regarding members of the Senate. Or the LBJ tapes... or the Nixon ones... or Clinton.... Presidents have some cursing issues when you think about it, don't they?

fllinva

My God....why doesn't someone thank the police for quickly responding to a possible break-in and give credit where credit is due. So the police were cautious to identify the "professor" as the homeowner. It had nothing to do with color...it had to do with SERVE AND PROTECT... Don't tell me that they haven't heard the story.."but officer, it's mine, REALLY>>>before. The professor should have thanked the officer for being efficient in his job instead of gettig on his high horse. With all that education, you would think he would know better. Well from me to all of the Cambridge officers..THANK YOU FOR BEING THERE EACH AND EVERYDAY TO PROTECT US ALL.......

SteveK

Admitting to a mistake is harder for some than it is for others... It's hard enough to be able to acknowledge this positive, constructive trait in a person we disagree with. Quite the talent... quite a skill.

"There are more fools in the world than there are people". - Heinrich Heine

qwert321

Mistake? It really depends on what your definition of mistake is.

SteveK

mis·take
–noun
1. an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.
2. a misunderstanding or misconception.
–verb (used with object)
3. to regard or identify wrongly as something or someone else: I mistook him for the mayor.
4. to understand, interpret, or evaluate wrongly; misunderstand; misinterpret.

NEVERBACKDOWN

all u racist bastard the president nor mr gates have anything 2 back off about. they were right that cop took that man to jail wrongfuly. and should have been surspended with out pay. and jailed him seft. mr obama should have call 4 a ful civil rights in vestagation in to this..and sent a messsage that this type of acts by white police on black people need to stop with out any question or talkin back....

wendiVenturaCA

Neverbackdown you soiund like just the kind of racist i had in mind when i posted. Maybe you didn't read the articles.... Gates got beligerant when he was asked to show his id... Crowley didn't know who he was, only that a neighbor had called the police saying that two men were on the front porch with back packs trying to force open the front door.... before police got there, Gates had let himself in through the back, so that when police arrived, he was in the house.... which is why Crowley asked Gates to come outside of the house onto the porch because the call was that "TWO men were trying to force entry in the front".... Crowley had every right to ask Gates for his i.d. and to step outside, not knowing if there was another man inside the house that may have broken in. That's when Gates apparently got ugly and racist badgerikng Crowley for his badge number and screaming racism..... So because Gates was creating a public nuisance out there on his front porth, he was arrested.... and later all charges were dropped.

It was Gates' neighbor who made the call to police, .... why doesn't Gate's neighbor know what Gate's looks like?? Gates should introduce himself to his neighbors..... and Gates should have priased the police for responding to protect his property!

formerobamasupporter

So, you thought our president is educated? You would think that a person with his backgroung would be smarter that he pretends to be....To me it appears arrogant and racist in all that it means....Where is our mentor? Our guider? Our person to follow? It didn't take too long to find our who our president is....who is calling police officers acting "stupidly" and the next day to apologize them and invite them for a beer?????? You must be kidding me......I do no not even want to think this is our president....was he drunk already?

NEVERBACKDOWN

we have always had racist presidents so whats new?

NEVERBACKDOWN

the neighbors knew what mr gates look like and called the police, not to help but to be mean they new the police would give a black man a hard time...... in a case like this. None this was done to help mr gates it was all done to hurt him.

EEllis

Stop yelling! The neighbors may have known who Gates was but it wasn't a neighbor who called. Somebody who was driving by saw something that looked suspicious called. I have heard many times that the cop should of just ignored the outbursts of Gates. That it's their job to put up with anything and everything people wish to dump on them. Why? How much would you put up with? Even people who make min wage can refuse service to some asshole, a cop cannot. There has to be a limit to what they have to put up with and to what we can subject police to. The office reportedly put up with quite a bit and could of taken much more drastic action than he did. So it seems wrong for people who were not there, have never been in that officers position, to be passing judgment so confidently.

buds

Obama has no business getting involved in local politics, or issues, he has a job to do and it is not making remarks about something that is none of his business. The man is going to take us all down the road to starvation because of the idiots that fall for his smiles and child like voice, he is not fit to rule America.

buds

Wake up people, you are being shamed by your president and his staff, you are on the verge of loosing your rights as American citizens. Obama is taking this country to the Pitts of hell and the public is just now beginning to see a little of what he stands for. There is no way to buy your way out of debt, the Obama administration is trying to do just that, we will be a bankrupt Nation within two years if Obama continues to do what he is trying. He has done nothing since taking office for America, he has traveled more than any President in history, he has apologized for the American peoples religion, he has promised aid to foreign Country's but no aid to this Country.

T-Steel

As one of the comment moderators at this site, I have to say that this thread is quite weird. I've read the word "racist" being thrown around with impunity. Calling President Obama, Sgt. Crowley, or Professor Gates "racists" is serious business. And I was tempted to "moderate" comments due to escalating rhetoric (that could easily tread into flame wars). But since the language stayed somewhat decent, I'm not going to.

But the ALL CAPS in an entire comment needs to stop please. It is a tactic to hijack the thread and will be moderated in the future.

GeorgeSorwell

T-Steel--

I agree about the weirdness of this. I'm sure none of the regular readers wants TMV to turn into this.

But it seems to me that the extremists of both sides are exposing the inadequacies in their thinking. They're doing it to themselves.

So thanks for warning before erasing anything. And thanks for being specific in the warning.

liljenn

Has anyone gotten off this board to read what REALLY happened? His house was broken in before. He rigged his door and had to "break back in" because his lock had not been replaced yet. A neighbor saw him and called the police. When they showed up, they ask him to step outside and show id. He got all high and mighty and started raising his voice, playing the race card, and thought making threats was the way to go. He refused to produce id. The police repeatidly ask him to calm down. He grew enraged when the police told him that if he didn't settle down, he was going to go to jail for disorderly conduct. Still refusing to show id or to calm down after numerous requests, he went to jail for disorderly conduct! If his own neighbor wasn't sure that was him, how were the cops suppose to know that? They came to stop a robbery! He should have said thank you and whipped out his license! But, he refused, like he was so above the law and it's safety. Do you think if someone cries they know Obama that they are above the law? They are now! I don't care if you're purple, when a police officer asks for your id, especially if everything could be resolved from it, get it out! There is no way any of you would have taken his word for it! The President was wrong! He didn't have the facts and he should have apologized, but he didn't! Two wrongs don't make it right...period!

D. E.Rodriguez

I believe part of the original post was about apologizing, saying "I am sorry," saying, I made a mistake."

Does anyone remember our previous president ever apologizing for any of his gigantic mistakes?

Like the one that cost our country the lives of over 4,000 of our finest

Yes, I know, some will say that made him a real man...

SteveK

liljenn wrote: "Still refusing to show id or to calm down after numerous requests, he went to jail for disorderly conduct!"
Apparently liljenn didn't get a chance "to read what REALLY happened" either because the Police Report states that Mr. Gates DID show his ID...
"... did supply me with a Harvard University indentification card. Upon learning that Gates was affiliated with Harvard, I radioed and requested the presence of the Harvard University Police... With the Harvard University indentification in hand, I radioed my findings to ECC..."
He produced valid ID in early stages of the incident liljenn AND the reporting party (the one who called 911) wasn't a neighbor, she didn't live in the neighborhood. So what is the point of your rant?
Two wrongs don't make it right...period!
And three wrongs just look stu... silly!

wipe_out76

It disturbs me greatly that the president of the United States would make comments to fuel racial tension as he did with this issue. It bothers me that a man that is held to such a high standard within our social structure would help make something bigger than it really is. I am a police officer and too many times have I seen people use their race as an excuse or a weapon because they cannot take responsibility for their own actions. Put yourself in their shoes. You are returning home and have no access into your home for whatever reason. You have to force your way into your own home. Someone observes you forcing yourself into the home and calls the police. A police officer arrives and enters the home with suspicion that it may be a burglary in progress and he makes contact with you. Ok so what would you do as ether one of these men?? First of all that officer is there to protect the property of Mr. Gates. Mr. Gates should be thank full that there is an officer on the street willing to do his job in protecting his community. I would have done the same thing if in that officers shoes. I would have asked Mr. Gates for his identification. If Mr. Gates provided proof that he in fact lived there then I would have apologized for bothering him and left him to his business. If he failed to provide his ID or some proof that it was in fact his house he would have gone to jail. I mean common since your house gets broken into and the police arrive and make contact with the burglar. The burglar tells the police "I live here" and the police say ok have a nice day and the burglar steals all of your stuff. You would be mad that the police did not take that extra step to make sure that the person that they talked to really lived there. For Obama to get involved in this without knowing all the facts was ignorant and all he is doing now is trying to save face because his advisors are telling him that he needs to fix it. That’s a great president that we have there.

mo2tx

Just goes to show ya that the only people who still have a problem with racism is ...... I myself see us all equal and merit not on skin color but actions. The blacks won't let racism go so their continues to be a problem. My family has blacks, Indians, Irish, and so forth in it. I do not support slavery. If the blacks would not always scream racism everytime one of their own goes to jail, gets roughed up for resisting arrest, or killed while robbing a home or business then maybe everyone would let racism go and forget it. But, they don't want us to forget it. Ya don't see them coming to the defense when someone white, asian, latino, or whatever has the same thing happen to them. Why can't we all just get along?

weightingpatiently

As much as our great president is trying to get us out of this crap that Bush put us in, so many people are ungrateful. Obama says one thing and everyone is trying to find all types of fault. Just because he's not white as all the other presidents and is concerned about the lower classed citizens it bothers most. He's not racist. He's just trying to show America that it's still going on and it's not ok. He's been in office less than a year and has accomplished more than Bush did in eight years. So stop your bickering, he's our president, he had majority vote, so now deal with it. This country is a melting pot. So please know that white are not the majority anymore!

qwert321

>>>If the blacks would not always scream racism everytime one of their own goes to jail, gets roughed up for resisting arrest, or killed while robbing a home or business then maybe everyone would let racism go and forget it. <<<<

I think Chris Rock said it the best-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8

Gates did not follow the "Be Polite", "Shut the F*** Up" and "Get a White Friend" hints.

archangel

Hi, as one of the moderators of ol' TMV here, I've been wondering if the full moon is appearing at least four times a month now? Not only on this thread. I have w consideration re my fellow editor, T Steels, put a fellow's/gal's comments above into lowercase that were in SHOUTING. All his/her words and spelling are intact. Including his/her sentiment.

My personal take, which does not necessarily represent all other writers at TMV'... I'd rather see/hear what's in a person's mind who holds ill for others, than have them secret it behind closed doors, as it has been most all our lives... We know when people take ill will underground... about any group targeted, any group... mal-ideas can be whipped into actions that are malicious, severing, based on falsehoods, but nonetheless, deadly.

I am ever heartened to read comments that weigh facts, that have facts at all in them, and opinions that regardless of point of view start with the premise that holds others as human. I'm not an Obama-booer nor Obama-flogger, but thought Obama was trying to do just that. Hold Prof Gates and Officer Crowley as humans.... after he himself stumbled around a bit with his own humanness.
dr.e
assistant ed, / columnist TMV

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