From the President, Damage Control

By: Mark Knoller
Topics: In The News

(AP)

It was damage control at the highest level of the U.S. government.

"If you got to do a job, do it yourself," said President Obama as he made a surprise Friday afternoon appearance in the White House briefing room.

The job he felt compelled to perform was to try to defuse the "media frenzy" over his comment that Cambridge police "acted stupidly" last week in arresting his friend, Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

"I could have calibrated those words differently," said the president in a six minute statement.

He said he "unfortunately gave an impression" that he was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. James Crowley, the officer who arrested Gates.

He said he called Crowley to explain his poor choice of words, and then told reporters, "he was an outstanding police officer and a good man."

That assertion came on the same day that Massachusetts police groups demanded the president issue an apology. That's a word Mr. Obama did not utter at the briefing room lectern, though it was the unmistakable gist of his phone call and statement.

Two days after his "acted stupidly" crack, Mr. Obama sounded decidedly more even-handed, saying that both the police and the professor had probably overreacted.

He referred to Gates and Crowley as "two good people" in a situation they were unable to resolve in an amicable fashion.

He said he invited Crowley to join him and Gates for a beer at the White House sometime soon. A spokesman said later that Mr. Obama also spoke today with Prof. Gates, extending the beer party invitation to him as well.

If it happens, it'll be a photo op of monster proportions. Just imagine if they clink their frosty beer steins together for a toast. Front page of every paper in America.

It's exceedingly unusual for a U.S. president in the age of cable news to admit – in front of cameras - that he contributed to a situation that got out of hand.

Like other mortals, presidents make mistakes - but don't like to admit to them. When they do, it's usually because they're backed into a political corner and there's no other way out.

President Clinton only fessed up to his "inappropriate" relationship with Monica Lewinsky after he was compelled to give grand jury testimony about it.

President Reagan resisted for months before taking responsibility for the Iran/Contra scandal by saying "mistakes were made."

And in 1976, President Ford was pressured to admit he misspoke in a presidential debate when he said Poland was not under Soviet domination.

Thirty-three years later, President Obama felt under pressure as well. His misstep was distracting the press and the public.

"I don't know if you've noticed," he said, "but nobody has been paying much attention to health care," which is his top legislative priority.

He decided not to let that situation drag on. He could have issued a written statement and spared himself the personal appearance, but spokesman Robert Gibbs said the President believed he should appear before reporters.

He called this matter a "teachable moment." He certainly learned to choose his words more carefully. But he did not learn to keep the presidency out of local matters of this nature.

He made it clear he reserves the right to speak out on such cases, asserting it's "part of my portfolio."

(CBS)

Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

Mark Knoller
Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent.
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by pasmalltown July 26, 2009 8:58 AM EDT: "He called this matter a "teachable moment." He certainly learned to choose his words more carefully. But he did not learn to keep the presidency out of local matters of this nature.

He made it clear he reserves the right to speak out on such cases, asserting it's "part of my portfolio.""

"teachable moment", "part of my portfolio", "stupidity" - What's next? Obama must realize he IS on a national stage, that his every word is under a electron microscope and he is judged by every word said, every second. He needs to learn that speaking about a "local" issue on a national forum about health care reform will draw some critisism. He has the right to discuss and air his opinions about ANY issue - what he needs to learn is pick the appropriate time and place to air those opinions. Time will tell if he learned anything from this "whole mess" (my choice of words) - I'm glad the White House has no further comments about the Gate's/Cambridge PD issue. I'm willing to bet they (Gibbs in particular) "had a few beers" over the "whole mess" before the President even thought of the idea....; Reply to this comment


by Jacquie_Butterfield July 26, 2009 1:49 AM EDT: THIS MAY STIR UP MORE TURMOIL.

BUT I'VE JUST READ AN INTERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT THIS ONLINE. IT'S ON THE GUARDIAN.CO.UK WEBSITE AND IS WRITTEN BY PATRICIA WILLIAMS WHO IS PROFESSOR LAW AT COLUMBIA.; Reply to this comment


by dalyarnold July 25, 2009 11:55 PM EDT: IN Burke County NC the Superintedent of schools was fired due to an email, It was a simple mathmatic/science question - something like How come 85000 people could not get out of New Orleans with 4 days notice and 85 degeree weather but 250000+ plus could get to Chicago in 6 hours notice in Freezing weather. This email went to Thousands of people, It was simply a question to ponder and yet the superintendent was fired. The facts were correct in the question. Think about it. How American was the firing? Book burning is next!!; Reply to this comment


by dalyarnold July 25, 2009 11:03 PM EDT: Hey no body regardless of party affiliation is destabilizing Obama better than Obama himself!
Lets look at HIS choice of Friends. Nobody held a gun on him & made him be friends with the "God Damn America" preacher Wright. Nobady made him say & do the things he has said & done.
& let's not forget the Queen incident- even grade school children know 'your head should never be higher than the Queen's and _______ Even Charles doesn't HUG his mother. And when does the President of the USA bow to Saudi Arabia. Obama needs advisors if he has them either listen to them or fire the bungling idiots cause you're looking bad- real bad. The rest of thr world is laughung at our openly flagrant display of ignorance. This Racism thing has ben foretold as the downfall of America for 30+ years. Will obama be the one to bring it to fruition? It's not party affilliation that will destroy this country it's ignorance & pride.; Reply to this comment


by dalyarnold July 25, 2009 6:48 PM EDT: One more thing in response to Political Parties- They all seem to be losers. Wars we shouldn't be in or have been in. Millions of jobs lost to south of the Border & millions of $$$$ paid by the remaining job holders to Support the Millions of "South of the border" illegals who have better health care than the ones paying the bill(A lot of us have no insurance & can not afford Insurance but are forced to pay for the illegals Insurance with forced tax) Supporting Communism- Shop at Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree....."Made in CHINA" is everywhere.
We have been in a political slumber.
Now that MANY of us no longer have more money than Brains perhaps we will take the time to REALLY LOOK at What the Heck is going on in this country.
Thank You MadeOff (SP)Perhaps now that times are tough people will take a good hard look at the _____ going on and JUST maybe people will start taking control of this country again by throwing out the bums in office and making people contribute to the coffers they so eagerly & freely dig into as a 'right' OOOPs nowhere else in the world is it a 'right' for you to rape, rob & pillage the country you "SNUCK" into.
You don't even get a trial. You are deported. Kinda like 'takin out the trash' I Like it!
Who elected Obama? Suck it up.; Reply to this comment

by Edwina46 July 25, 2009 2:57 PM EDT

mountain...molehill...anyone?

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by dalyarnold July 25, 2009 11:44 PM EDT: DEEP DEEP CAVERN we have sunk to new LOWS


by Jacquie_Butterfield July 26, 2009 5:59 AM EDT: Agree. Symptomatic of a bunch who've been on top too long and can't take any kind of critique.....very thin-skinned neurotic unreal bunch.

by Sloughfoot July 25, 2009 11:52 AM EDT

Police have to work with spur of the moments situtations to which they must react. The half-white, half-wit had hours and days to prepare his comment and now he wants to redo it. Not fit to serve, he is.

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by dalyarnold July 25, 2009 11:43 PM EDT: Ya know ya had my vote until you started the racist half- white and the righteous half-wit comment . ARE YOU RELATED TO GATES? You ceratinly have his verbally abusive gene.
Please don't let anyone believe any Law enforcement Officer would back you on these comments

by basia2186 July 25, 2009 10:14 AM EDT

Ron Paul in 2012! Obama scares me. I was not a Bush fan, did not vote for McCain or Obama, and I truly do not feel represented in this presidency. His "change" is socialism, yet he has appointed a bunch of czars. What is up with that?

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by dalyarnold July 25, 2009 10:04 PM EDT: Palin for Pres, Regardless of Party. She's crazy like a fox. It's about time we got some gray matter in the Whitehouse.


by dalyarnold July 25, 2009 11:38 PM EDT: I lived in Germany for many years. They have a social/democratic system based on what we call unalienable rights. Our Founding fathers never conceived the idea that health care would be more expensive than housing, groceries & utilities combined. I have several degrees. I did not go to school with the complete utter and total belief I should be paid better than many Kings, Emperors, Prime ministers, heads of state.. Since the 70's & maybe before, med students became med students not because of a God given gift, a calling... but JUST FOR THE MONEY . It's totally out of control now. Dr's raise fees, insurance companies raise premiums and cut payments then tell dr's how to treat patients... Who loses? WE DO. The doctors & the insurance companies don't give a ______ about us. The politicians get paid to look the other way.
Some aspects of life do need to be socialized if we are to be able to sustain this country . Basic necessities- food , shelter, & medical care should be available to ALL Americans. We screwed up by giving FREE things to illegals who don't pay & do not want to pay for anything. If we eleiminate FREE healthcare to illegals that's more than half the financial battle of healthcare. Ya Know , our country was pretyy messed up at one point BUT we fought for our FREEDOM and changed things. I have no sympathy for the spineless, treasoness, cowards that run from their countries & their problems. They are sucking the life blood from this country. If they want a better life go home & fight for it. WE DID!
Observe. When you are in a group of people & some one is bashing everyone & everything BEWARE. the minute you leave the area your back is being bloodied by this person. This is true for illegals . Thye have NO allegience to their country & DEFINETLY NO ALLEGIENCE to us (as they say stupid Americans- we give them everything for free)
MY 70+ yr old High school History teacher told us"there is no such thing as Gratitude. When you do some thing for some one (country) this belittles them. It sends the message: you are stronger, wealthier etc. They HATE you for it. Look at all the countries we helped over the years . NO One has Paid us back." The same holds true for all the illegals we Help. THEY HATE US. WE are sending the message: You are weak, we are better than you etc. They are laughing at us. They truly are getting something for nothing. Heck if I was illegal I'd be laughing at us too.
WE NEED CHANGE - NO Doubt

by swin5 July 25, 2009 10:11 AM EDT

Notice how successful, so far, a black president, a black governor, and a black mayor have been in keeping the recordings of Officer Crowley's radio calls, with Gates screaming in the background from being released to the public. They want to prevent the release but if they can't then a delay until things quiet down may be just as good.

And by the way, not since Richard Nixon has an American president used his position and authority to directly attack a citizen of the United States.

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by dalyarnold July 25, 2009 10:02 PM EDT: Speaking of Nixon
You see how well this tactic worked with the 'WATERGATE' Tapes!
LOL

by amplover July 25, 2009 8:18 AM EDT

Obama indeed "addressed the issue" quickly... and that is in his favor... however, he did NOT apologize, he DID comment imprudently, and he DID "blame the listeners" for not understanding his improperly "calibrated" words. A simple "I'm sorry" would have shown him to be a man of character, if he were one. An honest "Like everyone else, I have racial biases and let them get the best of my judgement" would have shown him to be a man of integrity. Having a beer with the blue collar officer and the elitist Harvard professor is simply a cover-up for the lack of integrity and character that the person occupying the Oval office has when it comes to race, education, and class bias.

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by dalyarnold July 25, 2009 10:00 PM EDT: How Racist is the Assumption a 'blue collar officer drinks beer? Pretty Racist IF he drinks , it may be Cutty, Seagrams, Sangria, Johnny, Jack.... Hey I've been called Elitist- Frazier Crane is an Elitist. "Skip" Gates is just an Arrogant, demanding, senile old man who may or may not be the product os Affirmative action. ( My guess is he is due to his lack of gray matter.
Obama should just back away from the punch bowl- stop dipping when you don't know the flavor.
I have worked customer service. When some one rants & raves its a Big red Flag- they are lying or covering up. I had this one customer, in another state, who often ordered incorrectly causing us great expense for returns... BUT EVERYTIME HE CALLED HE WOULD PREFACE HIS PROBLEM WITH: "I'm an idiot..." WE LOVED HIM & TREATED HIM VERY WELL IN SPITE OF THE EXTRA TRIPS & INCREASED EXPENSE. True Humilty goes a long way
You got that Obama?? _