Obama answer to the Gates's question was one of the most bizarre things I have seen at a Presidential news conference. I am not sure if the answer to this is that Obama is sort of a jerk or we are seeing his inexperience come through. See Althouse Look! Over there! It's Skip Gates!
She says in part:
As he was speaking, I think, the President realized his words collapsed on themselves. He said he didn't know the facts, and yet he called the police stupid. To get out of that jam, he decided to veer into a riff about racism in general, asserting that "there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately." (I love the way he threw Latinos into that.) He celebrates what he sees as or hopes you see as his escape from the jam by asserting "That's just a fact." He didn't know the facts of the specific case, but hey, look over here, here's a fact: There is racism in this country, we all know that. He then tumbles toward the end of the hour with an acknowledgment of what he knows a lot of people will say — that he made it to the presidency, and, yeah, there's been "incredible progress" — and a reprise about racism — it haunts us — and reform, reform is important. He worked in the Illinois legislature. Let's improve policing. Let's make everybody safer. He's just trying to wrap things up and get out of there looking reasonably okay. "All right? Thank you, everybody."
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