From the President, Damage Control
"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."
