Last week at a press conference on the health care debate, Barack Obama made an unforced error. He acknowledged before making his statement that he did not have all the facts, which meant that he should have kept his mouth shut on the issue. But, he felt compelled to speak. He then talked about his friend Professor Gates from Harvard and the fact that he had been arrested in Cambridge, MA. Barack Obama echoed Professor Gates in calling the arrest racial profiling and racism. He added that the police department had “acted stupidly” in this issue.

Barack Obama is used to getting what he wants on almost every issue. He is not used to being confronted with facts on an issue. When he said the police had “acted stupidly”, he expected everyone to agree with his assessment regardless of the facts. The Cambridge Police Department and the Police Union took exception to the world-wide denigration of their character. They decided that they were not going to take it and called for a full investigation of the issue.

My natural inclination is to take the side of the police in any issue like this. The reason is that I served as a Deputy Sheriff for 4 years in Colorado. That gives me a bias towards police and sheriff’s departments in any issue. I still feel a comradeship with my fellow law enforcement officers. That does not make me blind to wrong doing. If I see or hear about wrong doing, I am one of the first to call for the measures necessary to clean up the situation.

I also have a bias against someone when they cry racism. There are legitimate times when there are racist situations. When they occur, I denounce them and call for a resolution of the problem. The problem with the cries of racism is that about 95-99% of the time the cry of racism is just an attempt to get out of trouble on the part of the criminal involved in the situation. In the usual cries of racism, they only go one way. The usual cries are that whites are oppressing blacks. The usual cries never acknowledge that racists exist in every racial group. The ones crying racism only acknowledge racism if the person is white. They never see racism by any other racial group, even if it goes on right before their eyes.

An example of racism on my campus was in the hiring of a teacher. The person in charge of the committee made the statement that the person selected will be the best person for the job and a minority. There was nothing wrong with the statement, until you added the minority. If you want the best person for the job, you may get a white male. If you only want a minority, you do not necessarily want the best person for the job. To the administration on campus, they had no problem with that statement. If the statement been that the candidate had to be white, the college administration would have come unglued and cried racism, with some justification. Why would it be racism if the candidate had to be white and not racism if the candidate had to be a minority? In my mind, both would have been an example of racism.

In the issue of Professor Gates, the facts are these: The police department received a call that Professor Gates house was being broken into. The police responded and found Professor Gates inside the home dressed rather shabbily. They asked for identification and received verbal abuse in response. They asked to talk to Professor Gates outside and Professor Gates responded that he would talk to their mother outside. After some time, the officers involved (one black and one white) arrested Professor Gates. After bringing him in for booking, it was discovered who he was. Professor Gates was cited for disorderly conduct and released.

Some other information that the President lacked when he made his comment was that the Sergeant involved teaches a course at the police academy on how not to racially profile. He was one of the least likely candidates for a racial incident in the entire department.

After putting his foot in his mouth, Barack Obama decided to make lemonade. He invited both men to the White House for a friendly get-together. At this get-together the White House served food and beer. By all accounts, this event will be a friendly affair.

Barack Obama did not expect the backlash on a racial incident. He thought that his pronouncement would either be accepted or just blow over. The comment did neither. The comment riled up a firestorm of controversy. Obama was wrong to have said anything. He should be concentrating on things with national importance. He should not involve himself in a local issue. That will make a minor local problem and make it a major national problem. Obama seems to think that words do not mean things or have consequences. He has to learn that when a President speaks, the world listens. He cannot go around shooting his mouth off on local issues like a novice back bench legislator. He has to act the part of the leader of the free world. Right now, I would have to say that the job is bigger and tougher than he is. That is not a good sign for the US over the next 7 ½ years.