Harvard Professor Arrested--Gates Black in America

[angelmom]

You know - at least when Obama doesn't have all the facts when he asked about something at a press conference he admits it and then goes into an articulate, intelligent response based on what he does know. I know we are not use to this kind of behavior by a president in this country but don't worry I am sure we will all get used to it.

Really? What I heard was him admitting he didn't have all the facts and then calling Crowley stupid anyway. Very smooth.

 

[mysterygirl]

You know - at least when Obama doesn't have all the facts when he asked about something at a press conference he admits it and then goes into an articulate, intelligent response based on what he does know. I know we are not use to this kind of behavior by a president in this country but don't worry I am sure we will all get used to it.

You are right about one thing. We are not use to this kind of behavior by a President in this country. When Presidents do not have all of the facts........they stop, after saying that they do not have all of the facts.

 

[Nova]

You know - at least when Obama doesn't have all the facts when he asked about something at a press conference he admits it and then goes into an articulate, intelligent response based on what he does know. I know we are not use to this kind of behavior by a president in this country but don't worry I am sure we will all get used to it.

Amen. But the sad truth is a certain percentage of the American public actually liked the way Obama's predecessor wore his ignorance as a badge of honor, relied heavily on planted questions and refused to ever admit a mistake. Apparently, the show business of bluff makes some people feel secure.

 

[Nova]

Let's see we have Crowley responding to a call doing his job.

We have an incorrect assumption of racial profiling by Gates who then acted like an irrational jerk.

Then we have Obama ....probably planting a question to be asked and responding in an uninformed sophmoric way at a national press conference.....very presidential. Followed by a non apology and photo op. beer summit for damage control.

Yep...Crowley does look stellar.

Anyone would look "stellar" once you stacked the deck for them in this manner. No one faults Crowley for responding to a robbery call.

What happened after that was not captured on tape and none of us knows exactly what was said.

The charge that Obama "planted" a question that forced him to admit he didn't know all the facts is absurd. You just have it in for him.

 

[Nova]

You are right about one thing. We are not use to this kind of behavior by a President in this country. When Presidents do not have all of the facts........they stop, after saying that they do not have all of the facts.

Welcome back from Bizarro World, mg. We had a very different President of the U.S.A. on this planet.

 

[Nova]

Really? What I heard was him admitting he didn't have all the facts and then calling Crowley stupid anyway. Very smooth.

Perhaps the President spoke too hastily. But I imagine he was thinking the situation could have been handled without an arrest. Many of us thought the same at the time and think so now.

Crowley may not be a racist (I don't pretend to know), but in this case, he could have been smarter. (Gates, too, BTW.)

 

[mysterygirl]

Welcome back from Bizarro World, mg. We had a very different President of the U.S.A. on this planet.

I am in Bizarro World right now Nova.........the very different President is here right now.

 

[mysterygirl]

Anyone would look "stellar" once you stacked the deck for them in this manner. No one faults Crowley for responding to a robbery call.

What happened after that was not captured on tape and none of us knows exactly what was said.

The charge that Obama "planted" a question that forced him to admit he didn't know all the facts is absurd. You just have it in for him.

That question was planned and everyone knows it. The reporter was from Chicago, the question went last....probably in an effort to deflect from the health care debacle. Not to mention.......planting questions is pretty routine from what I read and hear. You just adore him.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50445

I am pretty sure it is on youtube if you want to see it.......

 

[JBean]

Perhaps the President spoke too hastily. But I imagine he was thinking the situation could have been handled without an arrest. Many of us thought the same at the time and think so now.

Crowley may not be a racist (I don't pretend to know), but in this case, he could have been smarter. (Gates, too, BTW.)

You know Nova, that one sentence is what I keep coming back to.
I think Gates screwed up up royal and I have posted as such.

however, handling this without an arrest would have elevated Crowley and he blew it.

Imo, Gates should have kept is mouth shut, but racism and profiling is real and these claims do not come out of left field. I suppose in his mind enough was enough that day.

Crowley should have written his report and left, but let's face it LE takes a heck of a lot of abuse as well and I suppose enough was enough for him that day also.

Both of these dudes had the power to defuse this situation, but neither one chose to. I have decided the heck with both of these guys.

 

[Nova]

That question was planned and everyone knows it. The reporter was from Chicago, the question went last....probably in an effort to deflect from the health care debacle. Not to mention.......planting questions is pretty routine from what I read and hear. You just adore him.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50445

I am pretty sure it is on youtube if you want to see it.......

So now Obama controls all reporters in Chicago?! Probably through some mass intimidation scheme involving ACORN or radicals from the 1960s.

I repeat: if Obama had planted the question, he would have known enough to prepare a better answer. Even his linguistically challenged predecessor knew that much.

 

[Nova]

You know Nova, that one sentence is what I keep coming back to.
I think Gates screwed up up royal and I have posted as such.

however, handling this without an arrest would have elevated Crowley and he blew it.

Imo, Gates should have kept is mouth shut, but racism and profiling is real and these claims do not come out of left field. I suppose in his mind enough was enough that day.

Crowley should have written his report and left, but let's face it LE takes a heck of a lot of abuse as well and I suppose enough was enough for him that day also.

Both of these dudes had the power to defuse this situation, but neither one chose to. I have decided the heck with both of these guys.

I agree, J. Either could have defused the situation, but both overreacted based on their individual frames of reference.

The only difference I see is that Crowley is the pro here, supposedly trained to de-escalate conflict and to be sensitive to the perceptions of minorities.

That being said, the officer didn't shoot or taser anybody. I don't think his career--much less his life--should be ruined over this. Police officers are human beings and sometimes they, too, make mistakes.

 

[mysterygirl]

So now Obama controls all reporters in Chicago?! Probably through some mass intimidation scheme involving ACORN or radicals from the 1960s.

I repeat: if Obama had planted the question, he would have known enough to prepare a better answer. Even his linguistically challenged predecessor knew that much.

Does he control them all? No. Did he probably get this reporter to ask that question, yes. Obama gets a little linguistically challenged too without a teleprompter. He thought his answer was correct, he was defending his friend. But the fact remains, he should not have answered THAT question the way he did..............good lord, even Bush knew that much.

When Helen Thomas calls you out for manipulation of the media with pre-planned questions, you know its bad. Poor Gibbs, if he wasn't so arrogant, I would almost feel sorry for him. Nova, if you cannot admit that this administration has a tight control on questions based on what I just showed you, the conversation cannot be very honest. But moving on regarding this situation, everyone has made up their minds and we have far larger problems.

 

[gaia227]

That question was planned and everyone knows it. The reporter was from Chicago, the question went last....probably in an effort to deflect from the health care debacle. Not to mention.......planting questions is pretty routine from what I read and hear. You just adore him.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50445

I am pretty sure it is on youtube if you want to see it.......

Perhaps picking sources that a little less bias might help people take you more seriously. You are posting links to CNS "News" which is bias bi-product of propagandic media with one agenda and one viewpoint. It isn't exactly the best source.

God forbid the president is trying to take healthcare out of the hands of big business and make it accessible to everyone - not just the wealthy and middle class. Insurance companies are making billions of dollars off of the misery of people and it is allowed because it is privatized. I am pretty sure he is not trying to deflect attention from healthcare because he does not see it as a debacle and is not ashamed of it.

 

[mysterygirl]

Perhaps picking sources that a little less bias might help people take you more seriously. You are posting links to CNS "News" which is bias bi-product of propagandic media with one agenda and one viewpoint. It isn't exactly the best source.

God forbid the president is trying to take healthcare out of the hands of big business and make it accessible to everyone - not just the wealthy and middle class. Insurance companies are making billions of dollars off of the misery of people and it is allowed because it is privatized. I am pretty sure he is not trying to deflect attention from healthcare because he does not see it as a debacle and is not ashamed of it.

Gaia.....that story was run on several sites. CNS just ran it. The VIDEO is on you tube unless it has been yanked. How about this, Helen Thomas, is a known liberal in the press. Even HELEN THOMAS which should have clued you in, called Obama out on his manipulation of the press saying it was the worse she had ever seen. Like I said, if one cannot see it......then they just do not want to see it.

 

[Nova]

Does he control them all? No. Did he probably get this reporter to ask that question, yes. Obama gets a little linguistically challenged too without a teleprompter. He thought his answer was correct, he was defending his friend. But the fact remains, he should not have answered THAT question the way he did..............good lord, even Bush knew that much.

When Helen Thomas calls you out for manipulation of the media with pre-planned questions, you know its bad. Poor Gibbs, if he wasn't so arrogant, I would almost feel sorry for him. Nova, if you cannot admit that this administration has a tight control on questions based on what I just showed you, the conversation cannot be very honest. But moving on regarding this situation, everyone has made up their minds and we have far larger problems.

Producing a quantity of sources does not prove your point when the evidence cited doesn't support your contentions.

Nobody said Obama and his people aren't concerned with working the media. One cannot be elected president in this country without some savvy public relations.

Helen Thomas didn't say the question re Gates/Crowley was planted. You are saying that.

And I am saying it makes no sense that Obama would both plant a question and then be unprepared to answer it and have to admit as much. The whole purpose of planting questions is to allow the respondent to reply with canned answers.

And let's stop with the "teleprompter" nonsense. That stuff may fly in the PP where you and the like-minded accept each other's charges unquestionably, but not here. No doubt Obama, like all modern politicians, uses a teleprompter on occasion. He has also spoken extemporaneously on more occasions in the past six months than his predecessor did in eight years. And doing so has gotten Obama into some minor trouble once or twice, as the case discussed in this thread demonstrates.

(ETA personally I prefer a politician who speaks candidly, even if s/he has to backtrack from a misstatement now and then. But accusing a politician of being both TOO prepared (i.e., planting questions) and UNprepared (i.e., making careless remarks) smacks of unwieldy partisan bias.)

 

[mysterygirl]

Producing a quantity of sources does not prove your point when the evidence cited doesn't support your contentions.

Nobody said Obama and his people aren't concerned with working the media. One cannot be elected president in this country without some savvy public relations.

Helen Thomas didn't say the question re Gates/Crowley was planted. You are saying that.

And I am saying it makes no sense that Obama would both plant a question and then be unprepared to answer it and have to admit as much. The whole purpose of planting questions is to allow the respondent to reply with canned answers.

And let's stop with the "teleprompter" nonsense. That stuff may fly in the PP where you and the like-minded accept each other's charges unquestionably, but not here. No doubt Obama, like all modern politicians, uses a teleprompter on occasion. He has also spoken extemporaneously on more occasions in the past six months than his predecessor did in eight years. And doing so has gotten Obama into some minor trouble once or twice, as the case discussed in this thread demonstrates.

(ETA personally I prefer a politician who speaks candidly, even if s/he has to backtrack from a misstatement now and then. But accusing a politician of being both TOO prepared (i.e., planting questions) and UNprepared (i.e., making careless remarks) smacks of unwieldy partisan bias.)

No one said Helen Thomas said the Gates question was planted especially since that happened BEFORE the incident. I was showing you that he has a pattern of doing this, something you are not willing to admit. His answer was planned it just was not planned well. And Nova, you and like minded people would defend him regardless of any evidence presented to you. He uses TOTUS on occasion? Please. I also prefer a politician who speaks candidly. He should not have said what he said and I feel that he had knowledge prior to saying it which makes it worse. You can believe that he had no prior knowledge of the subject....and the conclusion is no different. It was not a good move and it was followed by a non apology. That is my opinion. You certainly have the right to yours.

 

[Nova]

No one said Helen Thomas said the Gates question was planted especially since that happened BEFORE the incident. I was showing you that he has a pattern of doing this, something you are not willing to admit. His answer was planned it just was not planned well. And Nova, you and like minded people would defend him regardless of any evidence presented to you. He uses TOTUS on occasion? Please. I also prefer a politician who speaks candidly. He should not have said what he said and I feel that he had knowledge prior to saying it which makes it worse. You can believe that he had no prior knowledge of the subject....and the conclusion is no different. It was not a good move and it was followed by a non apology. That is my opinion. You certainly have the right to yours.

Of course you have the right to opine that Obama's statement on this affair was ill-considered. I don't think it was so bad; in fact it was a pretty good summary of police conduct, even if the accuracy was accidental, given the speaker's limited information.

But potato, potahto.

For some reason, however, you need to pile on and also accuse Obama of having planted the question. I am pointing out that you have no evidence for this assertion and that, in fact, it makes no sense (even if he has planted other questions in the past).

You may opine that the moon is made of green cheese. I will surely respond that we have no evidence that it contains any dairy product.

 

[gaia227]

Producing a quantity of sources does not prove your point when the evidence cited doesn't support your contentions.

Nobody said Obama and his people aren't concerned with working the media. One cannot be elected president in this country without some savvy public relations.

Helen Thomas didn't say the question re Gates/Crowley was planted. You are saying that.

And I am saying it makes no sense that Obama would both plant a question and then be unprepared to answer it and have to admit as much. The whole purpose of planting questions is to allow the respondent to reply with canned answers.

And let's stop with the "teleprompter" nonsense. That stuff may fly in the PP where you and the like-minded accept each other's charges unquestionably, but not here. No doubt Obama, like all modern politicians, uses a teleprompter on occasion. He has also spoken extemporaneously on more occasions in the past six months than his predecessor did in eight years. And doing so has gotten Obama into some minor trouble once or twice, as the case discussed in this thread demonstrates.

(ETA personally I prefer a politician who speaks candidly, even if s/he has to backtrack from a misstatement now and then. But accusing a politician of being both TOO prepared (i.e., planting questions) and UNprepared (i.e., making careless remarks) smacks of unwieldy partisan bias.)

The teleprompter business just blows my mind. EVERY modern president has used a teleprompter and before teleprompters they held their prepared speeches in their hands. Especially considering that we are coming out of 8 yrs of a president who was one the most inarticulate, wore his ignorance as some kind of medal, was unable to answer question that were asked off the cuff because he was so arrogant he did not propertly research issues and only surrounded himself with like-minded people. He is followed by a one of the most intelligent and articulate presidents we have had in a long time who speaks 'off the cuff' often which if you have ever have had the opportunity to see him speak is obvious, writes his own speeches and revises and edits his own speeches and HE is being accused of being inarticulate? Even to those who say that I have my doubts as to if they really believe that or if they are just sore losers and looking at any cheap shots they can find. I have noticed a phenomena with the right wing who adamently defended Bush's ability to articulate and give educated, introspective, emotional answers are now giving those same critisms to a man who does posess those qualities, utilizes them and has ushered in a much needed era of intellectualism, CRITICAL THINKING and common sense into the White House. Unfortunately that has also brought out the unbelievably ignorant population in this country who just believe whatever they hear on Fox News and have a serious lack of critical thinking skills. Glen Beck and Limbaugh say that the question was planted and that Obama is secret racist so therefore it must be true.

Obama has plenty of qualities and beliefs that I don't personally agree with and I am critical of him as well. He has continued to feed the capitalistic American machine (if one looks up the origins of Socialism and what exactly being a socialist means it would quickly become obvious Obama is far from being a socialist), he has continued the war in Iraq and secret air raid campaigns in Afghanistan, he has adopted many of the Bush administrations policies regarding detainee potential terrorists indefinitely, saying the torture that occured under the Bush admin. yet won't prosecute anyone for it and some torture is still allowed which contradicts some of his statements. When it comes to the environment even with his cap and trade bill is allowing business to basically purchase higher caps from the gov't and continues to feed the idea of free market and he does and will continue to bow to the powerful lobbyists in this country and has made compromises regarding the environment and foreign policy which are disappointing.

I will always be critical of any president democrat or republican because I know what this country under both leaderships have and continue to do to expound our own imperialistic and capitalistic interests especially in South America - putting down peaceful socialist movements, allowing huge US companies to buy up poor farmers land to turn around and then hire those farmers at slave wages, rape said region of their most valuable resources, exporting them and making tons of money for the U.S while putting nothing economically back into that country. The U.S. bears much responsibility for the economic situations in many 3rd world countries because of the pursuit of controlling resources. Any country or leader who has tried to get U.S. based companies out of their regions and halt our ever pervasive imperialism are quickly labeled bad guys with no real explanation and people just accept it as true. All U.S. media including 'liberal' media like MSNBC, CNN, etc are heavily censored by the gov't and more than half the stories you see reported are being put their by PR industries who are employed by the US government.

 

[Nova]

Great, great post, gaia!

I agree: Obama isn't perfect. But we can't seem to ever discuss what he actually says and does because we're so busy correcting fabrications and wild charges.

Okay back OT: it WAS stupid that the Cambridge police couldn't solve this incident without arresting a middle-aged cripple on his own property.

Whether POTUS should have said so is another issue and opinions may vary on that. Personally, I think that police do a difficult job and generally deserve our support; however the notion that police should be above reproach by anyone is a very dangerous idea.

 

[magnolia]

Great, great post, gaia!

I agree: Obama isn't perfect. But we can't seem to ever discuss what he actually says and does because we're so busy correcting fabrications and wild charges.

Okay back OT: it WAS stupid that the Cambridge police couldn't solve this incident without arresting a middle-aged cripple on his own property.

Whether POTUS should have said so is another issue and opinions may vary on that. Personally, I think that police do a difficult job and generally deserve our support; however the notion that police should be above reproach by anyone is a very dangerous idea.

I'm really confused Nova. Are you implying a poster/s on this thread have that notion?