Obama's Henry Louis Gates Arrest Comment is His Second Race Mistake

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Before this week, President Obama had only made one misstep in his political career on the highly explosive issue of race: not quitting his Chicago Church and dropping the company of its controversial former Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He reacted quickly and brilliantly to that controversy, however, by delivering an eloquent, game-changing speech on race in America. His second misstep took place this week when he entered into another race-based dustup—that between Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (an Obama pal) and a Cambridge policeman. Now, he's stopped for an apology to the Cambridge police department for saying it acted "stupidly" but he has once again put out a small blaze before it became a forest fire.

If you don't get a chance to see the video, President Obama ends his statement by saying he's going to set up a three-way meeting among himself, Prof. Gates and Sergeant James Crowley where they can drink beer together. Now that's bound to assuage the ire of any person of any color in America.

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