The President weighs in on the Gates' travesty (includes press conference video)

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

My conservative friends would not agree, but last night a gust of fresh air blew in.

At the end of yesterday's news conference on health care reform, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet asked Barack Obama about race relations in America.

The President said "the Cambridge police acted stupidly" arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates in his own home. He also said if he broke into his house (e.g., The White House), "Then I'd get shot." Right on, BHO!


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Obama's Speech: Moral equivalence and white guilt

...click Obama to enlarge...

There is a fascinating editorial in today's Washington Post: "The Speech: A Brilliant Fraud." "His defense rests on two central propositions: (a) moral equivalence and (b) white guilt. " Charles Krauthammer makes a pretty interesting case for Barack Obama being just another politician of expediency.

I felt like it was a great speech. But was my white guilt merely played like a Stradivarius? A great speech may not be noble, but accomplishes what it set out to do. The polls seem to indicate Obama got a bump from the speech in certain sectors, while he lost ground with the independents. I don't think we'll know for a while because it's not over yet.

Was this the first sign of the cynical, manipulative politician that had to emerge sooner or later? And how will all the new young and African-American voters view that? Does Obama, as a singularly historic figure, get to play by a different set of rules?
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