My God, The President's A Person!
President Obama gave what I think was a very reasonable answer to what happened to Professor Gates in Cambridge and a day later he very reasonably defended that answer. I think he said, in nicer words, what any of us would have said if a friend had been arrested entering his own home. I don't need to preach to the choir here about the mistake the police officer made.
I'm just puzzled by people saying the president made a mistake. As if the president shouldn't be talking about small police matters. That's pretty funny since the president has pardon powers meaning that it's the president more so than any non-judicial employee of the federal government who can, indeed, interject himself into a matter between the police and a private citizen. It's not only proper for the President to have and express opinions about such things, it's among his constitutionally granted powers. Besides, enforcement agencies, be they the FBI or the local police are agents of the executive branches of government. The Cambridge police department might be far removed from the White House but the President has every right to tell those people how he expects them to behave.
But what's really shocking here is that the president spoke like any of us would. He said, in effect, that the cop was out of line. More surprising than he said it is that he realized it. He knew it. We actually have a president who knows what it's like to have to deal with a cop who has abused his authority or who has even made an innocent error in judgment. Obama's a regular guy who knows that an error in judgment made by a police officer can have profound consequences for an innocent civilian.
Compare that to George HW Bush, so removed from real life that he didn't know what a supermarket scanner was. Or compare this to Bush's son, a man who had never held a job where he wasn't backed by family money and political connections.
Now Bill Clinton had some of this but it was big, poetic empathy of the "I feel your pain" sort. It was genuine, heartfelt and from experience, for sure, but it was big and a little more than human. Obama was totally human last night and today. No poetry about it, he just plainly said that something shouldn't have happened and in the same way that we would except that this time, because it was from the president, the words were heard and will have some ramifications.
Obama's critics want to knock him for that. I think it's funny. Going to an anti-tax teabag party isn't populism. True populism is telling the police to stop and think about how they treat their fellow citizens. Obama didn't stoop to take part in a local matter, he did his job.
I'm just puzzled by people saying the president made a mistake. As if the president shouldn't be talking about small police matters. That's pretty funny since the president has pardon powers meaning that it's the president more so than any non-judicial employee of the federal government who can, indeed, interject himself into a matter between the police and a private citizen. It's not only proper for the President to have and express opinions about such things, it's among his constitutionally granted powers. Besides, enforcement agencies, be they the FBI or the local police are agents of the executive branches of government. The Cambridge police department might be far removed from the White House but the President has every right to tell those people how he expects them to behave.
But what's really shocking here is that the president spoke like any of us would. He said, in effect, that the cop was out of line. More surprising than he said it is that he realized it. He knew it. We actually have a president who knows what it's like to have to deal with a cop who has abused his authority or who has even made an innocent error in judgment. Obama's a regular guy who knows that an error in judgment made by a police officer can have profound consequences for an innocent civilian.
Compare that to George HW Bush, so removed from real life that he didn't know what a supermarket scanner was. Or compare this to Bush's son, a man who had never held a job where he wasn't backed by family money and political connections.
Now Bill Clinton had some of this but it was big, poetic empathy of the "I feel your pain" sort. It was genuine, heartfelt and from experience, for sure, but it was big and a little more than human. Obama was totally human last night and today. No poetry about it, he just plainly said that something shouldn't have happened and in the same way that we would except that this time, because it was from the president, the words were heard and will have some ramifications.
Obama's critics want to knock him for that. I think it's funny. Going to an anti-tax teabag party isn't populism. True populism is telling the police to stop and think about how they treat their fellow citizens. Obama didn't stoop to take part in a local matter, he did his job.
