Stoopid

Obama's first 100 days have been long over, so surely all the major PR crises are over right? Wrong. The ever popular Prez can, believe it or not, make mistakes as he very clearly did this week in reference to the arrest of a popular (and African-American) Harvard professor, arrested after local witnesses believed him to be forcing entry, into what turned out to be his own home. The professor himself accused the local cops of racism and Obama commented that

"The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home."

However, the controversy emerged because Obama put the arrest in the context of

"the long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately".

As Obama is clearly now a key representative of African-American issues, many have been waiting for a racial incident such as this to emerge, so as to see how the President would react. Would he be impartial or write a rap about it? (O.k. so stereotypes to the extreme and that but you get the deal). Would ghettObama find his way out? Most of all would racial issues be his downfall being the sensitive subject matter they are? Since the hesitation of many white voters in the '08 election was a fear of 'blacks coming first' (however unjustified, ignorant and a bit American (!) that may be) if Obama tipped the balance even slightly the reaction could well be uproar. Luckily however the man knows when he needs to save the situation. He curtly and carefully commented

"Because this has been ratcheting up and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt Crowley specifically"

And with that BO dug himself out of his very deep hole.