Why are people assuming the President "stumbled" into the Gates issue or that he regrets

[Empowerer]

his comments.

Haven't we yet learned that President Obama is one of the, if not the most brilliant polticians in generations. He doesn't "stumble" into anything.

The President is very aware of race and racism and racial dynamics in America. He also has always been very savvy and selective in how he addressed it, carefully choosing opportunities when he can teach and move and provoke thought. I believe that's what he's doing here - by design.

The President has been asked about race previously in his term and usually sidestepped the issue. But this time he spoke up and spoke very deliberately. He obviously thought this through in advance.

I believe the President saw this as an important opportunity to speak up and his refusal to back down only reinforces my view. He has provoked an enormous national conversation on race and by clearly stating a perspective, has forced people to view this in a different light.

The President didn't make a gaffe. He is doing just what a president should do. He is gently but firmly moving us forward.

[Peacetrain]

1. This is also his friend...a personal connection..

[zbdent]

6. and the "reporter" who asked him to comment on it

was known to twist Obama's replies ... and was likely looking for Obama to slip up ...

[mopinko]

20. and very well known to him.

lynn sweet has been following him for a long, long, long time. and is an ass.

[Cha]

32. This backfired on her bad

intentions then because healing and good IS coming from this.

[uponit7771]

2. Some don't like that he spoke out against racial profiling, he was supposed to be quite about racism

...in America not speak out against it.

[Moochy]

17. Yep that was the deal

I vote for the black guy and hay presto, we enter the post-racial age. Racism was officially declared over in November!!!!11111

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

So he should just pipe down and stop talking out of turn, if he knows what's good for him!

:sarcasm:

[cleveramerican]

3. He took the focus off health care

thats why so many see it as a mistake.
He changed the headline at the exact moment he should have been focused like a laser-beam on healthcare.

its not his answer, its going off message, He is usually much better at this.

[uponit7771]

4. You don't feel it would've been something else? They woudl've concentrated on his jeans or

...something?

Or media is constantly distracted by bright and shiny things

[cleveramerican]

5. he handed them a big shiny

with a bow on it.
And he knew it.

the cynic in me thought... Maybe he doesn't really want healthcare.
The Gates thing is the perfect sideshow to kill any momentum the press conference was supposed to build

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. Personally, I think the MSM would have

concentrated on the Gates question even if Obama had refused to answer it--they would have been all in a tizzy about Obama not supporting blacks, or something. It was lose-lose for Obama in this case, so better to speak his mind.

[yodermon]

18. Just the opposite. The MSM is slobbering over the big shiny thing

so they are pausing in their anti-healthcare propaganda campaign. Meanwhile, Obama's taking it straight to the people with townhalls.

[Hansel]

28. I think this is correct.

According to one of the WH reporters, Obama and his aids discussed what he should say if the questions came up. They agreed he should addressed it head on and answer the question fully.

When the press conference was called, he thought that there was a deal on health care and that is what he had intended to talk about. But the deal fell through so he had nothing. He knew Lynn Sweet would ask this dumb ass question because it is her MO. That's why he left her til last.

The pundits took the bait, the focused was on his answer to this question and the media spent less time on the fact that he had nothing new to offer. Sure they mentioned that his speech added nothing new, but they spent more time with the shiny object that was the Gate's situation.

Couple of days later Obama gets to show what a diplomat and problem solver he is. End result: he doesn't look like a loser because he doesn't have his health care bill yet. He looks like the great communicator and diplomat that he is.

Apparently the only thing the press aids wish he hadn't done is use the word "stupidly". I think he did it on purpose though.

[Empowerer]

29. Interesting assessment. I agree with you about his choice of the word "stupidly"

The President was speaking very deliberately and sounded as if he said the word with full thought before it came out of his mouth.

I don't believe he made a mistake. I think he was pissed about the incident and was just speaking his mind - and said just what he meant.

[cleveramerican]

33. Wow you should post this again

I still think he should have artfully dodged it.

[City Lights]

7. He was asked a question and he answered it.

If he had responded with a "no comment" type of answer in order to "stay on message," the corporate media would have made an issue out of that. Their uproar of the week would have been, "Why won't Obama comment on the Gates incident."

[cleveramerican]

8. He would have had to do it deftly, with style and grace,

He would have had to dodge it without appearing to dodge it.
I think he could have pulled it off,if he wanted to.

[EffieBlack]

9. He only went off message if someone else is trying to frame his message for him. He's the President

of the United States and what he has to say IS the message. If he wants to speak up about racial profiling, then what he says about racial profiling is the message.

This "message of the day" is a bullshit notion forced onto politicians by a lazy media that doesn't want to do any real work that requires them to keep more than one thought in their head or their stories at any given time.

But the American public isn't stupid and we are quite capable of following more than one topic at a time. Just because the cable news prima donnas looking for a chance to stop talking about health care went chasing after the Gates story like kittens chasing a shiny object doesn't mean that the general public has lost our focus.

The president didn't go off message. He's dead on message - he just has more than one message going at a time, which is a truly lovely thing for a president to be able to do. Thank God our president doesn't think we're the clueless idiots our media believe we are.

[Beetwasher]

14. What Makes You Think HE'S Not Focused On It?

It's his idiotic opponents that have lost focus and gone into a frothing rage over this.

He's distracted them so they're no longer peddling their lies and misinformation. Meanwhile, he's working behind the scenes and getting it done.

It's a misdirection by Obama to take some of his opponents out of the game, and it's working beautifully. He's playing them like a fiddle.

[Thrill]

10. Because the media and the Republicans

Told them he did

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. And Obama is standing behind his words

AND pointing out how the MSM is using the issue to distract from the real issue, health care reform.

[Beetwasher]

13. Of COURSE He Knows What He's Doing, He's PURPOSELY Distracting His Opponents

The idiot media and the rabid rightwing base are now out of the game as far as the h/c debate. They've been sent on a snipe hunt, distracted and misdirected.

Meanwhile, Obama is working getting the deal done w/ out the idiot media plastering the airwaves w/ lies and misinformation about h/c and w/out the rightwing lunatic base supporting the ground game.

[cleveramerican]

15. I hope your right

[Jennicut]

16. He is the first black President, of course someone would ask him this.

And why would he "dodge" the question, it was his friend?

[Empowerer]

21. Why is there any more need to ask a black president about a race issue than a white president?

They both have a race. They both should have an opinion about the race situation in America.

But for some reason, all too many people believe that white people - including white presidents - are "race neutral" - while the first black president is some kind of a "race man" who must offer his views on race in America whenever he's asked.

I have no problem with President Obama being asked this question. What I DO have a problem with is that it wouldn't occur to anyone to ask the same question of a white president.

[izzybeans]

19. The reporter was race-baiting us all imo.

They knew that it would stir up white resentment, even right here on DU.

[seaglass]

22. He regrets the way he worded it, I don't think he regretted

commenting on it.

I do not think he thought it through or he wouldn't have corrected himself yesterday.

[Seen the light]

23. Why do people keep saying he's a brilliant politician?

What has he accomplished in his first six months that he could only get through with his supposed political IQ? The only major thing he's pushed through Congress so far was the stimulus and he didn't do anything extraordinary to get it through. Is his political brilliance the reason why his approval rating is at such sky-high levels that it's right there in line with recent presidents six months into his term?

[FrenchieCat]

25. If you do not know why he is a brilliant politician,

and you believe that anyone would have done what he has done to date, which is so much more than you have decided to credit him with, then you need to read more, and spend less time writing on this forum.

The day that you are elected to anything, and are able to beat back the rabid media and get things done exactly how you want them done, please let us know.

The fact that you underappreciate what this President has to do in order to get anything done tells us more about you than it does about this particular President.

[Seen the light]

30. The question still remains though...

What can you point to since Barack Obama was elected that points to his political brilliance?

[ensho]

24. agree with empowerer

nt

[Cal33]

34. I'm rather new in this forum. What does "nt" mean?

[Mz Pip]

26. He's human

and not everything he says comes out perfectly.

If he really had thought this through in advance he never would have put the words "cops" and "stupidly" in the same sentence. I can't believe for a minute that he wanted this distraction.

[rantormusing]

27. Sad Face

It's a shame that Obama had to publicly recant or "splain", but there's a simple reason why



PROPAGANDA


Specifically cop propaganda

[Cha]

31. I don't regret it and I'm

sure Obama doesn't..only the corporatemediawhores would like to think they created a distraction but since their intentions are not good..they got the Law Of Unintended Consequences.

[Prism]

35. He violated the first rule of politics: never speak the truth

I think the tell that the President just stepped in it was that little gasp that escaped the press corps when he used the word "stupidly".

Blunt, black and white assessments are disallowable in politics. The expectation is for diplomatic vagueries that allow each side to draw what they wish from even the simplest statements. A clear declaration of truth is practically a tanker of blood running aground on the rocks of media chatter.

President Obama is generally very skilled and precise in his words, phrasing things just so as to allow for the calmest, most productive read possible. So I think part of it is that his blunt assessment is very much out of character for the image the media have created of him. It shocked them. Once the shock was over (about two seconds after the statement) they realized they had gold. An unequivocal statement involving race that was bound to result in two very heated, opposing sides. The perfect recipe for digital orgy.

It didn't help that police abuse and race are the kind of topics where it doesn't matter how ignorant someone is, everyone is going to have a rather vocal opinion that they can press for days. They're topics that everyone has at least some experience with, so the volume of chatter about them is going to be quite high.

I think all of the above is why the President's response is seen as a stumble. Not because his thoughts on the issue were wrong, but because all of that waited in the shadows, ready to descend on his administration at a single, misplaced word.

I appreciated his response and his address of racial profiling, but as soon as he said "stupidly" and that little audible gasp whistled up from off camera, I thought "Oh man, here we go." But make no mistake, that's much more an indictment of the media than the President. Perhaps he could have worded it differently, but the real problem is that our press corps reacts in that way and gleefully spends days on nonsense when the most meaningful domestic reform in decades is on the table in front of us.