Well, now that we actually have a President who can have a beer without having it considered "falling off the wagon", President Obama plans to use an age old common bond of men to smooth over tense feelings....booze. The President plans to reach out this afternoon to Harvard Professor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and Cambridge police officer, James Crowley.
If you don't know the story, here's the rundown, Crowley shows up at Gates home investigating a burglary and arrests Gates, even though Gates has proven he is in his own home. The racial tension heated even more when President Obama made a statement that Gates acted "stupidly" and in the same statement said he didn't have all the facts. Ok, you can have one or the other. You can say he acted stupidly but you better have the facts straight. Or, you can say you don't have the facts and not comment, especially in such a damning way to the officer and Cambridge police.
The story did not do him any favors in the news. A Pew Research poll shows that 41% disapprove of how President Obama handled the issue, while only 29% approved.
Well, the three are meeting in the Rose Garden of the White House for a beer this afternoon. Will this symbolic meeting put an end to racial tension in America? Probably not. Will it put an end to a negative story that has been hanging over the President all week? Probably. I think that will be good enough for this administration. One step (and beer) at a time...
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