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Friday, August 07, 2009
Stunt Master in Chief
I ask rhetorically, can you imagine Ronald Reagan doing something like this? Maybe Bill Clinton.
The much-anticipated “beer summit” of President Obama, the Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department in Massachusetts took place Thursday night, accompanied by minute-by-minute reporting from the White House press corps, countdown clocks from the cable news networks, and a last-minute addition by the White House in the form of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
After 10 days of near nonstop news coverage of a case that prompted a thousand news stories about race, the men sat down for less than an hour at a table across from the Oval Office under a magnolia tree.
“What you had today was two gentlemen who agreed to disagree on a particular issue,” a poised and smooth Sergeant Crowley said in a 15-minute news conference after the session. “We didn’t spend too much time dwelling on the past, and we decided to look forward.”
Forward to what exactly? It's not like the Sergeant and Professor move in the same social circles. Methinks Crowley has acquired a politician's gift for delivering a "process answer." He certainly looks and sounds like a politician. The live and let live approach from the comments are disingenuous, in a practiced politico's style. Future career?
You mouth off, I temporarily deprive you of your freedom. But it's a free country, so we can agree to disagree. Unless you're a civilian being rude to an officer. The bizarre thing is not so much that a cop and a person he arrested sat down for a nice chat, it's that the President of the United States felt compelled to host the meeting.
Professor Gates said in an interview, “I don’t think anybody but Barack Obama would have thought about bringing us together.”
Quite right. Pre-Messiah the Presidency was seen as an office dedicated to the defence of the Republic, and other hum-drum matters. Sure the photo-op is part and parcel of a modern presidency. Settling neighbourhood disputes, however, was not within the Founders vision for the office. For one thing the presidency is a federal office. Obama's first reaction should have been to pass the constitutional buck. He has not a whit of legitimate power over the conduct of a Cambridge, MA, police officer.
The petty restraints of a federal system are dust in the modern presidential balance. For a man who campaigned on the image of healing the earth itself, hosting a "beer summit" is par for the messianic course. After the meeting Obama attempted to downplay the event. Just some guys having a beer. Two white, two black. One can destroy all human life on earth, but hey just old friends. The two people with the most in common at the picnic table were Joe Biden and Prof. Gates. Two loud mouths who never know when to shut up. The former, however, is one heart beat away from the Oval Office, the latter caused a minor ruckus on a residential street.
Posted by Richard Anderson on August 7, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
Maybe our Canadian Politicians should have a Beer Summit. At least higher quality beverages would probably be quaffed. Then again, imagine question period after a few cold ones. It would probably turn into the Japanese Diet.
Posted by: Doug Gilchrist | 2009-08-07 9:01:18 AM
Add a dog and a pony and the show is complete.
Posted by: The original JC | 2009-08-07 3:15:14 PM
Received this from James D. Gass (LTjg 58-60) whose e-mail stated, "Mark your calendar - This Sunday on Fox Sean Hannity, of Hannity & Colmes ~ Fox news, is going to air a very important documentary about Barack Obama, Sunday night at 8:00 PM central / 9 PM eastern. He stated on the air this evening that no one in the news media was willing to do this. Hannity is going back to Obama's earlier days, showing even then his ties to radical professors, friends, spiritual advisers, etc., he stated this evening that he will show in detail his ties to Rev. Wright for 20+ yrs. How he was participating with this man, and not for the reasons he states! He has uncovered more of Obama's radical leaders and we will see things that no one in the media is willing to put out there. This will be a night that you will learn more about Obama than ever before Hannity is very passionate about this program and asked that everyone please, please watch~~
Sunday night, 8 PM. CT; 9 PM ET
Posted by: The original JC | 2009-08-08 8:07:09 AM
And we're supposed to believe any drivel that comes out of Sean Hannity's mouth. Hah, FOX is probably still trying to prove that Barack Obama planned 9/11 on his own.
Posted by: Doug Gilchrist | 2009-08-09 9:59:20 AM
FOX is probably still trying to prove that Barack Obama planned 9/11 on his own.
Posted by: Doug Gilchrist | 2009-08-09 9:59:20 AM
That wasn't Obama. And where do you get an off the wall idea like that? I don't like FOX much either, but I've never heard they were trying to prove Obama perpetrated 911.
Can you provide a link or is this assertion all in your head?
Posted by: The original JC | 2009-08-09 10:13:07 AM
More Crap from the Obama regime...
"Climate Change" could require Military Intervention.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32344842/ns/technology_and_science-the_new_york_times/from/ET
Are you fu**ing kidding me?
Posted by: The original JC | 2009-08-09 4:38:06 PM
More Fun from the Annointed One....
Unbelievably, Congress and the Obama administration are currently trying to resurrect the failed REAL ID Act, more accurately named “Dangerous ID.”
Dangerous ID, which passed in 2005, establishes a de facto National Identification System, and opens the doors for Federal biometric tracking of every American citizen.
Obama Administration Surveillance Czar Janet Napolitano pushes for a revamp of the system to get the invasive federal program up and running
Under Dangerous ID, Napolitano can unilaterally expand required information on driver's licenses, potentially to include biometric information such as retinal scans, fingerprints, DNA information, and even Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) radio tracking technology.
REAL ID snuck through on us, but this one we must stop in its tracks. It will be very difficult to combat if it becomes law, as we have seen with REAL ID. Our Legislature fought to oppose it, but our Governor sold us out. Here is a similar act, identical in intention, and still another centralizing measure introduced under the Department of Homeland Security against the States and their Tenth Amendment rights.
Just for a refresher, here is information on H.R. 418: REAL ID Act of 2005:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-418
And here is information on S. 1261: PASS ID Act of 2009, including text of the legislation:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-1261
Here are phone numbers for all on the committee for the bill:
Senator Lieberman (202) 224-4041 (Chairman)
Senator Collins (202) 224-2523
Senator Akaka (202) 224-6361
Senator Bennet (202) 224-5852
Senator Burris (202) 224-2854
Senator Carper (202) 224-2441
Senator Coburn (202) 224-5754
Senator Ensign (202) 224-6244
Senator Graham (202) 224-5972
Senator Landrieu (202) 224-5824
Senator Levin (202) 224-6221
Senator McCain (202) 224-2235
Senator McCaskill (202) 224-6154
Senator Pryor (202) 224-2353
Senator Tester (202) 224-2644
Senator Voinovich (202) 224-3353
Posted by: The original JC | 2009-08-10 2:32:33 PM
where was the fox news special?
Posted by: leslie | 2009-08-12 5:15:07 PM
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