Sigh

[bcholmes]

Obama phoned the two men to invite them to the White House yesterday as he sought to calm the debate sparked when he said the police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates.

The president told the policeman he should have chosen his words more carefully, but stopped short of issuing an apology.

"Because this has been ratcheting up and I helped to contribute to ratcheting it up, I want to make it clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave the impression I was maligning the Cambridge police department and Sergeant Crowley and I could have calibrated those words differently," he said. However, the president also said he felt both men could have handled the situation better.

— The Guardian

Oh, Obama. You were so awesome a few days ago.

I get why you're saying this; I really do. But it makes me pretty sad, nonetheless.

Comments

[wrdnrd]

I listened to some of the instant commentary on NPR immediately after Obama's speech the other night. One of the talking heads zeroed in on the "acted stupidly" comment and said, "That's going to come back to him." To which i shouted at the radio, "But he's RIGHT! They DID act stupidly!!"

Stupid political backpedaling.

[wild_irises]

But he did invite both Gates and the cop out for a beer, which I do appreciate.