Obama: 'Major decline,' Gates saga hurt

No foul called.

Obama himself disapproved his performance on this issue, took responsibility, and is attempting to correct it.

One more stark difference to his predecessor.

I'm sure the President had a lot of information at his disposal when he made that remark. A lot more than Joe Barstool or your average talking head.

Should he have let a full investigation proceed, and just said "no comment"?

Yes.

The conclusion of the report:

They acted intentionally.

Investigations can be very salutary things.

They can underscore truths and bring out new insights into the late Rep. Congress and Bush Admin.

And the President doesn't have to say a word.

Just let the investigations take their course.

Pres Obama has no need to worry because Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck and the rest of the right-wing whackjobs have taken this non-issue and made the case FOR the Democratic party with more enthusiasm and insanity than most of us could ever dream of doing.

I mean, could I ever hope to make the case for single-payer medical insurance better than Bill "the bloody" Kristol, Michael "hiphop makeover" Steele, and his sidekick Joe" "not a real" "Plumber already have?
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http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/kristol-admits-stewart-government-run-h

Not to mention Jeff "where's my formal white sheet" Sessions

The entire clownish cast of the C Street "bible" mafia

Senator Hushmoney Ensign

Governor Lovestruck in Argentina

Rep. Michelle BachmaCrazyspeak

Rush "Oxy" Limpbaugh

Diapers Vitter

Dick (and I mean DICK) Cheney

Junior Dick "call me Liz" Cheney,

Sarah "also" Palin,

Gramps "what was I thinking?" McCain,

And the best argument for Democrats in forty years:

George Dubya Bush - a man who showed the entire world exactly what the Republican party would do to America when entrusted with the White House, both houses of Congress, and a majority on the supreme court - steal from it, destroy it from within and kill it's citizens in phony wars for profit.

A network could turn the 2009 Republican party into a sitcom and it would be hilarious.

This could be Obama's Waterloo!

Health care could be Obama's Waterloo!

Global Warming could be Obama's Waterloo!

Iraq could be Obama's Waterloo!

Afghanistan could be Obama's Waterloo!

GM/Chrysler could be Obama's Waterloo!

Rabid Ferrets could be Obama's Waterloo!

Abba could be Obama's Waterloo!

The Repugs can't govern worth a damn, as they proved over and over again the last eight years and they have no business whatsoever of ever leading this country again BUT they do BS propaganda and hate better than anyone.

I'd feel sorry for the GOPer's if they weren't such freakin' petty idiots with the IQ of a tin can.

This is excellent media for Obabam to cover the casualties in Agafastan. for the month of July

I support and respect my President, but I think he should have gotten more info before he made the comment that was made. I think that Gates blew everything out of sight. I say that the officer did his job. And when Gates was stating about his race, I am of 5 races, one being African-American. I don't know the race card keeps getting pulled, especially when you know that you're in the wrong in the first place.

I always find it funny that people who weren't even there seem to have such an authoritative view of the event.

I also find it funny that people require instant results to major issues that have been a long time brewing.

Do you REALLY want this country run based on daily polls?

I like Obama. I voted for him (although I would have voted for any Democrat, even if it were Bozo the Clown just to get the Republicans out of there). But, Obama has been acting like a white guy (like Powell and Cosby) and was slowly losing Jesse and Al's people. He figured this was a good time to put in some 'black time'. Trouble is, he picked the wrong time and the wrong issue. Obama got set-up on this deal. That Harvard guy is a racist and will milk this for all it's worth. The cop should never have agreed to meet with these guys.

This week would be a wonderful opportunity for the President to his errors with this Gates debacle. As one half of him says gee, I said some things wrong about the police dept., and the officer is really a good guy, but blacks have this history thing you know....maybe his other half can now say, in the spirit of fixing this, why does a black academic need to say something to a police officer who is responding to a call protecting his house like: "because I am a black in America?" Why does he have to race-bate a police officer doing his job. Wouldn't it be a great bit of hopey-changy for out half white president to improve that area of our post racial society, and tell folks like Sharpton, and Gates the era of knee-jerk race bating is over.

Who is paying for this little tete-a-tete at the White House? The American Public? The participants funded their own travel expenses? Obama's campaign funds? Will the participants have to declare the value of the travel costs, beer and any lodging and incidentals paid for by the government or Obama as income?

It's a lot more difficult to be president and make decisions than it is to be a candidate. See, cynical as it may be, people expect a candidate to lie to them and make them pie-in-the-sky promises everyone knows they can never keep. But when your actually president, there's really nowhere else for the buck to go. Sure, you can try to blame your predecessor (and the loyal Obama sycophants will continue to excuse all of this president's bad decisions by injecting the word "Bush" into every response to a critique of something Obama says or does). But sooner or later the majority of grown-ups begin to recognize when a president just doesn't have anything beyond a suave exterior, rhetorical charm and a projection of "genius."

Remember when this president was elected? We were told "grown-ups" would be running the show. There would be no massive power grabs. Obama would roll back the "tyrannical" powers of the Bush administration. He would also restore fiscal discipline to Washington and would lead us to an unprecedented time of peace and prosperity. So far, though, all we've gotten is nothing but a collection of power grabs, no roll backs of any of the Bush era executive fiats and a run-up of the federal debt that makes Bush look like Ron Paul.

You can blame the Gates matter if you wish. And, no, it never helps for a president to attack a police officer. But people are seeing what Obama is now. He is off his pedestal and his halo has rusted. Now it's time to see what he really has got.

The rabid and drooling response from the lunatic right-wing fringe, as embodied by Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin, simply can't be blown out of proportion with regards to analyzing our society at large. The race-baiters on the right were going to react this way to Obama no matter what, and with every day that passes that small little batsh*t crazy group that the GOP calls a "base" is growing more and more isolated from mainstream America.
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/parsing-the-polls/21-percent.html

The cop should have Obama over for spicy wings and Pepsi.

Why Obama would side with Gates without knowing all the facts is beyond me. Then he back tracks after he gets more information. Can't wait until the "flipper" has a real decision to worry about.

Doesn't he know there are always three sides to what happened?

Obama is a racist and it he can't deny that even if he is only a small percentage black! He is using that small percent to make people think he is God to the World!

Focus on the real issues of life and the world instead of dialog between parties and about parties. The USA is by the people, for the people, of the people and the people better get on the media and the representatives they voted for to get to work on issues that progress this country in a positive way. Cut the popular culture nonsense, the blood and guts murders and get real. You can do this, I know you can!

Mark must have had a very difficult time writing this and also afraid that he might get called into the doghouse by his boss David Axelrod for reporting on something that is not favorable to the Messiah.

What also was "funny" about Obama's condemnation of the Cambridge police was that a few weeks he BARELY could muster any outrage whatsoever of the massacres taking place in Iran and to this day while massacres continue their, not a peep from Obimbo and his inept, despot-friendly regime.
Despite the state-run media's best efforts, it does seem the people are smart enough to realize that Obimbo is incompetent and way over his head. It's not Bush's fault, which Obimbo likes to do every chance he can get and folks realize that the continue destruction of this country is all on Obama. The economy went south under Bush, but Obimbo has made it worse, made the deficit much worse and while the state-run media and the Obimbobots think everything he touches turns to gold, the reality is everything he touches turns to stone. The folks also are beginning to realize that when the TelePrompter is away, Obumbles has all the clarity of a kindergartener's first essay paper!

It's more than the Gates fiasco. It's that everything he's touched is turning to ashes, from the phony stimulus to the massive unemployment to the government-run health care that three-quarters of Americans do not want. And the over-exposure! You can't tell a fool until he opens his mouth and Obama's opening his every hour of every day. If he didn't have his adoring media covering for him, his miscues would be more widely known and he'd be down to Pelosi's and Reid's approvals of 15 percent.

Of course simple people get worked up over what amounted to a nonissue that really didn't affect anyone other than a handful of people.

It's unfortunate that our population is so stupid that they get worked up over nonsense like this because the real issues are too complicated for their simple minds to comprehend.

People that are getting worked up over this are only acting like they're "politically involved." The reality is, they're fringe players who don't understand the game. They just want to be part of the crowd.

This is evidence of our failed civic education in this country.

"You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the
people all of the time". I'm beginning
to regain confidence in the American
people for they seem to be coming more and more to realize that Nobama is in over his head. On top of that I
believe they do not want "Chicago Politics". Maybe he should resign while he's still on top.

The cop from Boston should be fired. I don't care if he is serving overseas. I served my country and never called my fellow soldiers "banana eating monkeys."

If Crowley is smart he won't waste his time being bought out by the dictator

This is the epitomy of ignorance the way he handled and continues to handle this situation. A beer summit on an explosive situation regarding race relations.

The professor obviously handled the situation completely inappropriate. Instead of being "thankful" that the police arrived to check out if there was a burglary in progress at his residence, he resorted to name calling of the "white" police officer. What were his words? "Your Mama?" How immature! And this guy is a teacher at Harvard. I would definitely steer my child away from taking his class. Gates has been discriminated against and now is apparently a racist as well. That is the way I see it.

Whew, no wonder the NYT/CBS poll on Obamacare was buried from the front page to A 17 at the bottom! A whopping 76% said taxes will rise and 77% said costs would go up and overall only 40 some % believe "somewhat" in Obama's healthcare performance. There are other major polls which reflect that the American folks (especially the independents) are waking up and rejecting Obama as the realize that Obma is an ultra-leftists, liberal, spending vast amounts of debt dollars with questionable (if not downright failure) results and are becoming aware of his questionable socialist policies in general. They are rejecting his disingenuous rhetoric and the vast liberal MSM disinformation supporting his policies, especially this boondoggle Obamacare issue. Yes folks, a pig with lipstick is still a pig (as we recall the Prez.) and the folks realize this when they witness the reality of his policies. Stay tuned, as the demonizing blame game heats up. But one must remember, America will always reject a nanny state, entitlement burden society because that is not what we are and it is not in our heritage. Stay tuned, as the polls never lie! Thanks Mark for the poll numbers.

What's to disapprove? My God, why do people have an opinion about this. What a waste of time. If I saw a guy (black, white or purple) pulling on a door trying to open it. I might call the cops too.

It's the police that overreacted. Wouldn't a rational cop ask for identification to prove that he lived there. What's the problem and why does the media care so much?

bubba Porter, you love polls so much (in a selective sort of way). Speaking of the NYT poll, did you fail to notice that:

1.Americans trust Obama over congressional GOPers on health care by a 55%-26% margin.

2. 66% support a public option for all Americans.

3.72% think Congress is moving either too slowly or at the right pace.

4. 76% think current health care costs pose a serious threat to the nation's economy.

Obama may have used a poor choice of words, but at least he was man enough to step up and address it. Unlike the last president who never made a mistake, or ever admitted to having made a mistake. And for all those who say that Gates is the one at fault here, I would like to see what they would say if the police arrested them after they identified themselves as the owner of the home? I would bet that all the people talking about Gates being the issue would themselves be screaming that they were wrongly arrested. If the police are going to be this senstive then there should be a lot of people in jail. The fact is I am sure the officer was trained that sometimes it is best to simply walk away. Regardless of the person's race wouldn't that have been the right thing to do?

I know you nutroots can't swallow this, but during the George Bush fiasco, there were 52 months of economic growth. That train has passed because we have an anti-business man in charge. No problem, I still have a job and thank God because nobody will hire until this little ACORN gets out of office.

Just another opportunity for the media to orgasm over their own creation yet again. What a contrived, clumsy attempt at further publicity on Obama's part, the "never ending campaign" is obviously desperate for material. "Let's have a beer". B.S. Let's have a camera op is more like it. Keep the media circle jerk going, Barack. Distract, distract, distract.

Obama, after admitting he did not have all the facts, should not have taken sides by making the "acted stupidly" comment. I think even he acknowledges that. While that may have a marginal impact on his poll numbers, I think most Americans are worried about the economy and the health care reform debate. The CNN "poll of polls" has 45% of Americans approving of BO's handling of the economy, with 43% disapprove. As for his handling of health care, it's 43% approve v. 45% disapprove. BO's honeymoon period is ending, and his approval numbers are simply coming into line with America's view on his handling of the major issues, as opposed to this silly professor story that I wish would go away.

What do all of you think about the abrupt end to the "cash for clunkers program" unfortunately, there is not enough cash for clunkers. Kinda makes Obama's administration look very inept. surprise, surprise.

Oh pleeze... All you "critical analyst" and this incident supposedly affecting the President's approval rating? Yeah right, "we know, what this is about. What was the sentiment (and still too much today), just 40 short years ago? I believe it was something like "shut up nigger and do what you are told!' Dr. Gates openly defied this racist outdated, deeply rooted posture and The President made an observation and commented.

We offer the President license to speak about how other nations fall short with how it treat its people in :other places”, but he should turn a "blind eye" right here at home? What are you smokin', does it make you that "high"? What a twisted sense of logic. Yeah, just let the "investigation" takes its course, okay? Translation: “Shut up Mr. President, you don’t know anything…”

Most of you folks here have no clue as to what "racial profiling" is, much less have NEVER experience it its truest form. Before you fly off the handle, I did not that you have never experienced racism. What I am saying that most of you have NEVER been profile and responded to in such a way by law enforcement. This is “peanuts” compared to what happens to “everyday joes.”

It is well established that police engagement, response, and interaction with non-white citizen is way different than it is with whites. Maybe your heartfelt sentiments have you to believe otherwise, but this is a well-established fact backed by research study after research study.

I would like to see some of you guys trade places and have cops treat you like you are a "less than." No big deal, right?

Yes, I am all for "getting the bad guys', but we all should abhor any posture that does not afford all the same level of courtesy and respect to all citizens. Okay, granted that President may have spoken prematurely, and did not say what you wanted him to say (no comment), BUT AT LEAST HE SPOKE AND GOD BLESS HIM FOR IT! What was he supposed to do? Act like he does not know that these sort of things occur? We well know that would not be true.

Although this was an unfortunate espisode, Dr. Gates is hardly the face of racial profiling, this is a deeply rooted problem larger than most of you could ever imagine. But I do want to give credit to the officer who seemed like he was willing to listen and to learn.

This is not about Obama’s approval ratings, most of you who “disapproved”, disapproved even before this occurred, and you were just looking for you another excuse. Your 401k plans have not recovered, you are still facing economic and employment challenges, you home is perhaps is jeopardy, and Obama “does not know what he’s doing “ because its been six months and he has not “saved us” yet. That is what this

Flo. nice of you to comment. Where is the lefty outrage over the escalating deaths of our troops in Afghan? No, we are again diverted, discussing the racist demagoguery from the professor of the chair established in the name of W.E.B. Dubois, a Communist Party USA member at that elitist, lefty "Ha-vurd" and ignorant poll numbers. We are awaiting the leaked release of officer Crowley's tax returns and voting records from a unknown Mass. Democract official (remember Joe with the plunger?). Please, spare me the "spin", as to why the non-TelePrompTer comments by your man, Obama, are always so insightful? Glad to see Biden was there, as I am sure, sooner or later, he will drop a bomb about the whole beer summit. As Nancy says, "whenever" the Democract Congress gets around to finalizing their Obamacare fiasco, the American folks will reject it, as the facts and numbers will expose the disingenuous WH and Democract propaganda. Anyway, hope you cashed in on the "cash for clunkers" because they burned through 1B in just a few days. Many of the folks are enjoying their new hybrid Lexus, as they dumped that rusty ole' pickup from behind the barn. Another great lefty Democract idea that the "rich" folks cashed in on, while the rising unemployed are still searching for one of those 3.5 million new jobs promised from Obama. The "halo" is rusting.

Once again, bubba P, a nice rant with all whine and no solutions. The "lefty outrage" is obscured by corporate media obsession with a bad arrest, a beer summit, and insurance company lobbyist lies. Halos are a wingnut creation, bubba.

People are quickly waking-up to the fact that the Dear Leader has accomplished precious little in his first 6 mos. except being outmaneuvered by foreign despots and spending trillion$ that we don't have.

And the Porkulus is a train-wreck... the most recent jobs figures are far worse than the ones the White House warned us about if we DIDN’T pass the bill- so it was passed, and then unemployment soars anyway?

Instead of creating jobs, interest rates were bumped up, the dollar slid, as many economists warned us would happen… and it didn’t help anybody get any work. Much of this is due to the fact that Obama’s agenda has mortified almost every source of job-and-growth creation in the country.

Obama simply couldn’t deliver the type of “temporary, targeted, and timely” bill that he promised repeatedly. Regardless of his image in the MSM, Obama lacks the the political stature to control Pelosi and Reid... who hit the trough hard, while bickering like children.

And the lack of GOP co-conspirators exposed Obama politically… this legislation now looks to be a HUGE gamble. And when all this pork-n-welfare fails to generate any real economic gains, the Democrats face a bloodbath in 2010.

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com

"What do all of you think about the abrupt end to the "cash for clunkers program" unfortunately, there is not enough cash for clunkers. Kinda makes Obama's administration look very inept. surprise, surprise.
Posted by: chicamom | July 30, 2009 11:14 PM

Well, they burned through a $billion and have approved $2billion more.
So what's inept? What's your point?

If only Obama took responsibility of his"stupid" remark. There was no adequate apology and it will not heal until he does do so. My only take, for his reluctance to a simple apology, is that the black community feels he did no wrong. That's the fundamental difference we have to resolve.