Kyle Smith, of the NY Post (and friend of Threedonia), links to a round up of mostly liberal muckety-mucks who are uneasy with Obama’s characterization of police. Is the worm beginning to turn?
This incident could turn out to be something Obama really regrets. Says law prof Paul Butler: “The police ‘acted stupidly’ is something an angry black man would say. And angry black men tend not to get many votes….of course there will be political consequences.” Gates colleague David Gergen: “The president went too far in calling it stupid.” On the conservative side, there is scarcely unconcealed glee that Obama simultaneously allowed himself both to be led off-message and to wade into a fight with law enforcement types.
Neck on chopping block=bad position to be in.
The cynic in me can’t help but think this’ll be another exposure of Obama’s true mindset that’ll get swept under the rug. Fortunately, the windmill tilter in me is grinning widely as yet another leg falls from underneath the Obamessiah. Gonna be a fun Young Gun Conservative show tonight (that’s right, Rufus, shameless
).
Still a 97% approval rating amongst black for the President, though. Officer Crowley’s the racist???
To me the greater issue is that this is an incredibly ignorant comment from the head of the Executive branch. Race aside, it shows extremely poor judgement for the head law enforcement official in the land to comment so decidedly on an on-going investigation, especially when you consider that he implicates the law enforcement officers involved in the case.
If I’m the CEO of Dairy Queen, Inc., and I’m asked at a press conference about a rumor that someone got food poisoning from a Peanut Buster Parfait served in Bumblefrack, Idaho I’m not going to speculate that the 16 year old kid filling the plastic cup probably didn’t wash his hands after going to the bathroom. I’d probably say something like, “Well, I have heard about that and I’ve asked my staff to find out the facts and report to me. However, I can assure you that we stress the importance of proper hygiene in our company and I have great confidence in the men and women who don a Dairy Queen cap everyday and hit the front lines, doling out Dilly Bars.”
President Obama is the LEADER of the Executive branch. If law enforcement officials and military professionals are not adequately trained it’s his job to make sure they get better training. You can tell by his answer that he doesn’t even associate himself with the Executive function of government. THAT’s the real story here. He does not answer the question with any of the authority his position would warrant. He sounds like one of the women on the View speculating emotionally about a national news story she read about in Ladies Home Journal. If I worked in law enforcement or the military I would be very, very alarmed by his attitude and response to this question.
Excellent analogy, Rufus. I may actually have to break down and go to DQ tonight instead of Menchie’s for frozen yogurt.
I actually didn’t have that much problem with the statement, I say dumb stuff all the time, so I tend to go easy on others. What is hacking me off is his “apologies”. It really hacks me off that without ever really saying he screwed up, he then uses then entire thing to lecture us on racial issues “make sure we listen instead of talk”. Pot, this is kettle calling. I heard two. In the first one, toward the end of it he said something about over reaction on both sides and we should have let cooler heads prevail instead of jumping to conclusions. Who is he kidding here? Cause he just jumped to huge conclusions. Ug. I wish I hadn’t listened.