Obama's Return to the Race Issue

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In my opinion ther is plenty of blame to go around.
Gates overreacted. He should have been more coperative. Maybe he was drunk. We'll never know but it was his house after all.'Gates a disgrace' as GWB might say thats a bit of a 'misoverestimation'.
The police officer did not need to arrest Gates. I'm sure he could have calmed Gates down and found all the information needed to prove that he was the homeowner.perhaps he was having a bad day. Seems to me, if it were a real crime the charges would not have been dropped.
President Obama should simply said 'no comment'.
The press has blown this incident WAY out of proportion.
Many people on this blog are also overreacting. Sadly some comments on her and elsewhere demonstate that racism is alive and well in the good old USA and this incident has just brought it closer to the forefront which in itself may be a good thing.

Interested Canadian 5:16PM August 06, 2009

IF THIS WAS WHTIE ONE WHITE NO ONE WOULD HAVE GIVING THIS A SECOND THOUGHT . POLICE ARE OUT THERE TO DO A JOB ,THAT IS HARD ENOUGH TO BEING WITH . I AM VERY WHITE TAKE THAT HOW YOU WANT TOO IDON'T CARE ANY MORE .MY SONS ARE PULLED OVER ALL THE TIME BECAUSE OF THE WHY THEY LOOK WE DONT SCREAM THEY DID IT BECAUSE HIS WHITE .

NATSHA of FL 9:31AM July 30, 2009

Obama's comment about Gates and Police was as racist as you can get. He acknowledged that he does not know the details but instinctively chose to side with Gates and blame the Police Dept. He is a true follower of Rev. Wright.
He has a chip on his shoulder against America and thinks the African Americans are the true Owners of wealth and by crooked means the rich are wealthy. All his programs are designed to redistribute wealth with Government as the implementer. He should study History. The socialism has been tried many times and it has never worked. Look at Cuba, Venezuela, etc.

joe santana of AZ 4:34PM July 28, 2009

Since the signing of the Declarations of Independence, "race" has been a dominate factor. Ideological racism, created the image of the "other" with unshakeble strength and it is for this reason, situations such as Gates still occur. There has been many Presidents that were not ready for the responsiblity, but an image of the "Greatest President" was still formed.
The chaos developing presently, was created over a eight year period of time, and it's amazing that individuals except this pre-created non-sense, which affects every facet of the nation, to be corrected within six months. Health care was far from perfect before Obama entered the white house, education has been based on racist ideologies since it was determined to be the most important factor to economic advancement. So maybe the Nation needs to start examining it's real history, not the romantic myths that has served as history.

D. F. of IL 9:18PM July 26, 2009

His Gates comments did not serve the people except to show everyone that he speaks before he has accumulated all of the facts. Knowing this, congress should beware before blindly following him on anything. Nothing he has done, except increasing our debt, has worked since he has become the president, and now he is trying to blame all of it on his predessors. He has charmed the wallets right out of our pockets, so here is what we need to live by when dealing with him. " Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."

david boyer of TX 8:10PM July 26, 2009

I think that it is time to get a little clarity on our new president, he had a black father and a white mother....consequently he is not black or white he is a half cast or mulatto..... a rather common situation in the U. S. , Latin america and of course in africa......

STeve Roisman of CA 10:43PM July 25, 2009

It appears that the liberal media pushed hard for the election of Obama because of their belief that America was ready for a black president. It certainly appears from Obama's remarks concerning the Gates affair, that even though America may have been ready for a black president, this is one man no matter what his race was not ready to be president. And from his handling of health care reform and stimulus, I don't have much hope that he has the wisdon to become one.

Gary Stewart of TX 10:29PM July 25, 2009

Another instance of facts not standing in the way of a politician's mouth (especially one whose NAACP talk was not met with the expected adulation).

Jill of CA 7:44PM July 25, 2009

President Obama has been pretty good at not taking the bait to get involved in unpresidnetial issues up to this point, but failed to curb his instincts to respond in the Gates matter. Suddenly the story isn't the Gates arrest, but the President's comment about it. The press office hates it when that happens.
Upon reflection, the incident and its aftermath are an allegory for race in America. Everyone is ready to jump to a preconceived conclusion and stick to it regardless of the facts.
As I write in the message block, the name "Obama" is underlined in red, implying it is not a real word, and four suggestions appear as alternatives: Obadiah, Obadias, Bamako and Alabama. Does that make the Webmaster a racist? Imply that USN&WR is biased or insensitive? Depending on one's race, one could dismiss it as minutiae or say it's just one more example of racism in America that the first black president's name isn't automatically recognized by all spellchecker software.

Stanford of AZ 3:07PM July 24, 2009

Is this really a surprise given Obama's ties to Rev Wright? Come on ladies and gents. His knee-jerk, off-base reaction to the Gates incident makes it clear that he leaps to poor decisions without knowing the facts. Everything that has come out in the wash shows that Gates was belligerant, demeaning and uncooperative. Not only should the President have kept his mouth shut on the matter, he absolutely should have said nothing until he "knew the facts." How do you say you don't know the facts but call people racist and say they acted "stupidly?" It's clear who acted stupidly here. Gates and Obama should both formally apologize to the Cambridge police, but we all know that will never happen. Unreal.

Frank G of CA 2:03PM July 24, 2009