President Obama addressed the nation again in prime time; this time to garner support, and emphasize his desire to reform America's health care system. I won't bore you with the details of the speech if you missed it. Get the rundown here.
The highlight of the night in my opinion came when President Obama fielded his final question from the throng of White House correspondents present for the address.
A woman asked the president what he thought about the Henry Louis Gates incident that occurred a few days ago. If you haven't heard about it, read up on it here.
President Obama replied by saying that "the police acted stupidly" and "what we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately."
See for yourself:
Uh oh...so much for being PC. President Obama "kept it real," and gave his honest, unscripted opinion on the matter. I hope there isn't much backlash for those remarks. Obama acknowledged that Gates is a personal friend and that his opinion may be a little biased, but still...
Then again, isn't that what you want from a leader? Someone who will tell the truth and/or make decisions because those are right things to say and do, not because they are popular?
What about the "...here I'd get shot" comment? I laughed at the time when I heard it live as did the press members in the audience. I just hope that news outlets and the GOP don't replay/spin those bytes continuously down the road (re-election time if not sooner) to portray Obama in a negative light.
There is no question that what happened to Professor Gates is an unfortunate situation that probably could have been resolved differently. I hope that President Obama's approval ratings/political initiatives/respect from other politicians and world leaders do not waver in the aftermath of those comments; especially since it was not absolutely imperative that the president address that situation at all. That my friends would truly be an unfortunate situation.
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" make decisions because those are right things to say and do, not because they are popular?
ReplyDeleteNot to say that I can even see them in the same realm of existence, but Bush made that kind of justification all the way to his political grave.