Obama Moves to Quell Furor By Reconsidering Comments On Gates
The president said yesterday he could have “calibrated” more carefully his July 22 characterization of actions by a white police officer in arresting Gates at the black scholars Cambridge, Massachusetts, home.
Stopping short of a public apology during an unscheduled appearance at the daily White House news briefing, “In my choice of words, I unfortunately, I think, gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge police department or Sergeant Crowley specifically.” He was referring to James Crowley, the officer who arrested Gates.
Obama also said he believed both sides overreacted in the incident last week. He talked separately to Crowley and Gates by telephone yesterday, and invited both men to the White House.
The president was attempting to tamp down the furor over his comment at a July 22 news conference that police “acted stupidly” in arresting Gates on a disorderly conduct charge, which was later dropped. His comments yesterday came about two hours after police union officials in Cambridge held a news conference calling on Obama to apologize.
The presidents remarks at the nationally televised news conference dominated the news at a time when his health-care initiative was at a critical juncture in Congress and he was seeking to build more public support for it.
Huge Distraction
“The incident with Gates and the Cambridge police had become a huge distraction at a time when President Obama didnt need another,” said independent analysts Charlie Cook, publisher of the Cook Political Report.
Obama acknowledged as much yesterday.
“Over the last two days, as weve discussed this issue, I dont know if youve noticed, but nobodys been paying much attention to health care,” he said.
The attention should have been no surprise, according to two people who served as spokesmen for Obamas predecessor, former President George W. Bush.
Obama “waded into a story that he had no business commenting on, and didnt have the facts to comment on,” said Terry Holt, Bushs re-election campaign spokesman in 2004. “He took it as a political opportunity and it backfired.”
Presidential Words
“The most important aspect of this is if youre not a personal eyewitness to something this sensitive its best not to weigh in, even if youre the president of the United States,” Fleischer said. “Especially if youre president of the United States.”
Obama said he had no regrets about stepping into the case.
“The fact that this has become such a big issue I think is indicative of the fact that, you know, race is still a troubling aspect of our society,” said Obama, 47, the nations first black president.
He said he hoped it would become a “teachable moment, where all of us, instead of pumping up the volume, spend a little more time listening to each other.”
Obama also said his phone conversation with Crowley confirmed to him that the policeman is an “outstanding officer and a good man.”
An Overreaction