OBAMAGATE(S)

"Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has agreed to take President Obama up on his offer to have a beer with Sgt James Crowley, who arrested him earlier this week, at the White House. "I am hopeful that my experience will lead to greater sensitivity to issues of racial profiling in the criminal justice system. It is time for all of us to move on, and to assess what we can learn from this experience," Gates wrote in an email to the Boston Globe. Obama said in a surprise appearance on Friday that Gates and Crowley were both "decent people" and should have "a beer here in the White House." He then called both men to invite them personally. Obama earlier caught heat from police and others when he said Crowley "acted stupidly" when arresting Gates in his own home. He dialed back on those comments Friday after igniting a fiery national debate about race, saying he should have calibrated those words differently."

"There was discussion about he and I and Professor Gates (sic) having a beer here in the White House. We don't know if that's scheduled yet." -- PRESIDENT OBAMA

I do think Obama, though well-meaning, made a grave error here. As President of the United States, he should be above the "fray" -- in this case a local problem between a citizen and the police. He picked the wrong issue and picked on the wrong person. The fact that Professor Gates had political connections to Obama did not make Obama’s interference look any better. Policing is difficult at the best of times; the police do not need the Chief Executive second-guessing their work. If there was any wrong-doing, that's what the courts are for. "Having a beer at the White House" is a “stupid” solution to a “stupid” issue. Obama should stop preening for the public and attend to the huge job for which he was hired. He should not try to "micromanage" the country, and he should avoid casual, extemporaneous comments on sensitive issues. If he does not, he is going to get his nose bloodied more than once.

Having said that, I am still a Canadian Obama fan.