Imagine the lunacy. The most powerful elected official in the world – although at times President Obama does his absolute best to dispel that image by constantly apologizing for pre-Obama America – actually had to schedule a “summit” to have his buddy, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, and a white Cambridge police officer who recently arrested Gates, over to the White House to negotiate a truce in an escalating public relations nightmare for the president.
The media reported that, “White House aides are downplaying expectations that the beer summit will produce a resolution.” Sounds like they were talking about the latest negotiations with Russia over the number of nuclear weapons or something important. Geez. Maybe we need former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger or Madeline Albright to get involved and bring the two parties together.
The reality is that we, as Americans, shouldn’t even be here in the first place! What a complete waste of newsprint and presidential time.
This entire situation was preventable…and could have been avoided if Obama hadn’t taken the bait and improperly answered a seemingly innocent question at a press conference last week.
After admitting he didn’t know all the facts, Obama proceeded to offend the police officer and the Cambridge Police Department by saying that the officer had “acted stupidly” in the arrest of Gates. A firestorm erupted.
So, here we are. Why host a Cambridge, Massachusetts cop (an average Joe) and a Harvard scholar/Obama friend at the White House, instead of meeting with a head of state or a member of Congress?
The reason is simple: Obama stepped in it big-time with his knee-jerk reaction in saying that the police officer screwed up. Discussions of race and possible racial profiling further raised the stakes, police associations got involved (and supported the police officer)…and there you have it…a crisis of DEFCON-1 proportions. Thus, the so-called beer summit.
Maybe Barack Obama should consider asking North Korea’s “dear leader,” Kim Jong Il to get together with his South Korean counterpart for a cold one. Judging by past actions, “White House sources” would probably downplay any expectations that such a meeting would produce any resolution.
What’s even more comical about this whole situation is the name – the beer summit. Allegedly, Gates doesn’t even like beer. Maybe it’s too “working class” for him…or maybe he just doesn’t like the taste of a cold brew – either are perfectly acceptable. But, President Obama couldn’t call it the “Chablis Summit”…that would violate the “working class” image that Obama tries so hard to project and the Cambridge police officer would probably laugh at him.
The question the American people really want to know is…domestic or imported?