So, how did it go?But the event, which attracted so much interest that cable TV networks ran countdown clocks, had the taint of political theatre from the start.It is worth repeating -the "beer summit" was not to help race-relations, but to help Obama politically to get out a jam of his own making.A cynical move, as any. He would do well in Indian politics.He would shine in Bihar.
Obama was the main intended beneficiary, sitting in full public view at a picnic table under a magnolia tree with professor Henry Louis Gates, police sergeant James Crowley and Vice-President Joe Biden as a surprise late addition.
It was Obama who injected himself into the incident last week by accusing police of "stupidity" for arresting Gates after the academic broke into his own home because he had lost his keys.
It was Obama who escalated public debate to national proportions by linking the incident to a pattern of racial profiling by police.
And it was Obama, in an unusual lapse of judgment, who allowed public attention across the US to be distracted from his preferred topic of promoting a new healthcare system, to which he had devoted the previous fortnight in an attempt to force a deal on the US congress.
The US President inflamed tensions over race and reignited the culture wars at the very time he least wanted it. Now he needed a circuit-breaker to stem the damage and make the issue disappear.
An opinion poll released yesterday by Pew Research found 41per cent of Americans disapproved of Obama's action in coming out strongly in favour of the Harvard academic last week, despite admitting he was not aware of all the facts. Only 29 per cent approved.
Disturbingly for the White House, Obama's overall approval rating has fallen to 54 per cent, down from 61 per cent last month.
Update-
Charles Krauthammer on “beer summit:”
Well, I know all of us are supposed to get into the spirit of levity and good humor, but I'm afraid I can't.
This is a typical Obama. He commits an offense against the public good—he imputes racism where there was none—and then he declares it a teachable moment in which he will instruct us on tolerance, understanding, and brotherhood.
Now, he did this before. He does it over and over again. He's found in bed last year after 20 years with a raving racist. (We had known he had been in the church of Jeremiah Wright, but we didn't know about his racism until the middle of the campaign.) And what is Obama's response? He gives a speech on race, another teachable moment, in which he ascribes racism to everyone—white working class, African-Americans, Jeremiah Wright, his own grandmother—except himself. And he stands there hovering above it all, teaching us the ways of tolerance and brotherhood.
Look, he may be a great president or a lousy one, but when he acts in this way, when he stands above the fray in a patronizing and condescending way, instructing us on the ways of the world, I find him insufferable.
Otherwise, I'm sure he's a nice guy.
Update 2-
Thomas Lifson is stunned that-
the official White House Blog published this picture and that it is in the public domain. The body language is most revealing.
Sergeant Crowley, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicapped Professor Gates down the stairs, while Barack Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own. So who is compassionate? And who is so self-involved and arrogant that he is oblivious?
I think Lifson may be reading too much(or not) into the picture -photos do sometimes give a not fully accurate impression.But knowing Obama's well known self-regard, it is plausible.
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