Doubling down
President Obama’s updated remarks (see video) on the Henry Gates v. Cambridge cops story are not any improvement over his first incorrect and inappropriate comments (read them in full here):
I think this is a classic example at a time when we’re struggling about health care, energy, we’ve got two wars going on, that issues like this get elevated in ways that probably don’t make much sense. I think that it doesn’t make sense, with all the problems we have out there, to arrest a guy in his own home if he’s not causing a serious disturbance.”
How are health care, Iraq, Afghanistan, and cap and trade related in any way to the Cambridge police and how they perform their jobs? That’s just nuts. It’s gibberish. Obama’s overwrought and completely nonsensical assertions about his healthcare plan, which he seems to make up out of whole cloth, might be merely seen as political strategy, whether you agree with him or not. However, these nonsensical comments about the Cambridge Police suggest a speaker who seems pretty stressed out or in over his head.
July 24th, 2009 at 3:57 am
I think what is revving Obama’s engine is the fact that Michelle’s new “bob” makes her look more and more like Susan Boyle. It’s driving him crraaazzzzyyyyy!
… Now if Michelle could only sing…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1201190/Susan-Boyle-forces-Barack-Obama-switch-time-national-address.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1201337/Stylish-Michelle-Obama-shows-elegant-new-hairstyle.html
July 24th, 2009 at 4:10 am
by making these ill-informed and biased comments, obama violated his official office and his membership at the bar.
bho jr: worst potus ever.
July 24th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Is it possible we have a hard time placing Obama somewhere other than extremes? Some will say he did a stupid thing when he criticized the Cambridge Police; others will say “right on.” Some will insist he’s incredibly intelligent and could not have blundered when he said what he did; others will say he’s dumb as a box of rocks. Maybe it’s somewhere in the middle.
Let’s suppose for just a moment that he’s of average intelligence and probity. His staff planted a question on the incident because it involved another African American who just happens to be a friend and his staff then went on to suggest to him he use this as a teaching moment about racism. But his staff didn’t anticipate that this would be anything other than a positive moral statement on the presidents part, so when his original statement came out as just a little too glib he took some hits on it. Then he or his staff decided to make things better, but being of average intelligence and hot having someone else’s words to read off his teleprompter, he came out with another statement that was vulnerable to criticism — and he’s being criticized for it.
The real problem here is probably that he should have told his staff “no” when they suggested he take a question on the issue. He should probably have refused to get drawn into a topic that he didn’t have all the details about (by his own definition) and that is beneath his pay grade, as it were. In doing what he did he showed us once again that he is cut from the same cloth as Kim Jong Il — he believes he know it all.
Along with the other 23 czars on his staff, perhaps Obama needs a “stupid czar” who can tell Rahm Emanuel and others “no” when they suggest stupid things like commenting on a local issue tht is none of his business. F
July 26th, 2009 at 2:28 am
Obama’s staff had nothing to do with this. I expect they cautioned him on expressing an opinion on the subject before the facts were in. Obama saw political hay in this that was time sensitive so he went for it and laid it on the line. This strident action would bolster his choice of Supreme Court Justice as she is also dealing with race issues. Obama went all in on his “washington-hold-em” game.
He’s been called and now he is forced to show his hand.
Stupid is as stupid does.