Beer Summit

I've not commented on the so called Gates-gate because the whole story is being blown totally out of proportion for the wrong reasons.* And one of the main reasons it is getting so damn big is that President Obama, when asked about it at a press conference, made some ill advised comments. He admitted not knowing all the details but then went and called the actions of the police stupid.

Really, this curfuffle is way, way below his pay grade and he should have treated it that way. He could have said, "I've read the news articles about the arrest of Professor Gates. I don't know all the details of the encounter and therefore should not comment on them specifically. I'm sure the local police will be able to review the case and hope they will correct any procedural errors they may find."

Instead, he gave the statement he did. This lead to the inevitable issues, questions, accusations being leveled. Accusations of racism are flying. The blue wall of police nationwide are defending their perceived brother-in-arms. Its risen to the point where you have police officers on the other side of the country defending police abuse of power.

So tonight, President Obama is having an "informal beer" with the arresting officer and Professor Gates at the White House. This so called beer summit is to be a "teaching moment."

Meanwhile, health care reform flounders in Congress.




* This is being played as a racial issue and there are certainly racial undertones throughout the incident. The real issue here should be police abuse of power. It seems like a man was arrested in his home when the only "crime" committed was being mean to a cop. That's not a crime.