Recovering from Mistakes

The very profound lesson is that a 'leader' needs to step back when he gets riled up in public, regardless of whether his position is righr or wrong.

Once he/she does that, the question is simple: did I make matters worse and if so, what can I do to turn it around into a positive?

Barack seems to be pretty enlightened when it comes to asking and answering that question.

It was simply INAPPROPRIATE for the President to become involved in this minute altercation, and in a biased way. His action was somewhat demeaning to the Office of the President of the U.S., and voters are dismayed by it.

Too often when a "racial" event occurs, leaders leap forward to condemn the white man, when in reality there is a bigger story and the white man is not the aggressor. What we NOW have in the United States is institutionalized "bullying". Any black man can cry "racism" and receive a pat on the back for it. (Gates has already decided to make a film, and have classes about his experience) At least one white officer in Cambridge will lose his job and family support because of Gatess infantile (Yo Mama) behavior. God Help Us if this continues. Blacks are out of control. Time to sober up.

Second try.
It is appalling to see how quickly our President leaped to judgement. This kind of thing is happening too often. At least one white officer will lose his job while Prof.Gates goes on to make a movie about his experience (which he initiated and could have easily prevented.)

Obama has never really recovered from his knee-jerk comment bashing the police - in defense of Gates - with LIMITED info.
His "teachable moment" on racial profiling was based on a NON-incident of racial profiling. Not exactly the kind of "teachable moments" for the public.
But once again - Obama creates his own reality.

And neither Obama nor Gates has the decency to admit - the entire incident was based on the antics of an angry man, tired and exhausted from a long trip.

Most of us learned at a very young age - to COMPLY with police requests. But according to Obama - it's OK to have a hissy fit and then drink - to resolve conflicts.

Teachable moment - ha!

Amazing that the President makes a significant gaffe and the media trips over themselves to not only forgive and minimize the gaffe, but now try to make it appear that his lame attempt to paper over the gaffe shows him to be a superior leader. The North Korean media has nothing on the Post. Where is the investigative report on Gerald Walpin's firing? Where is the editorial on Leon Panetta saying that Dick Cheney wants the US to be attacked? It's no wonder that their are "birthers" out there; the media is so biased that they wouldn't report it, even if they discovered Obama was born in Africa.

I don't see Obama's choice of words as a mistake. The officer did act stupidly. He arrested a man for being angry in his own home. There's not actually a law against that. Very often I have to smile and nod at people I would prefer tossing out of the store. It's unprofessional for those of us who work with the public to let our emotions cloud our better judgment.

"Obama more bartender than mediator at beer summit" Sounds right on the money to me. There's an idea. Have a charity bar and have him serving up drinks for all the soon to be former workers of the world crowd. Obama in the Pub and the publishers can all be cocktail waitresses. The tables keep turning and she keeps turning too. She'll be a whiter shade of blue. Have plenty of Guinness Stout, so I can get cold on ice. Have a blast from the past. The good life is still good. Thank God.

The only teachable moment in all this has been the calm and courageous behavior of Ms. Whelan and Sgt. Leon Lashley. Is significant that neither were invited to the superficial spin of the White House beer-fest.

Do Henry Gates and President Obama really celebrate hard-earned progress in race relations? I wonder.

And I also now wonder about leadership. Aristotle was quite clear about the requisite focus of leadership, as were more contemporary voices, like John Gardner (of Commnon Cause.) A leader forgoes the human tendencies, keeps both eyes on the prize... because the social good that they are working toward is their ultimate passion. Distractions are not an option. Why did Obama so effortlessly take his eyes off his objectives, like health care reform, just to support a friend?

The reality of progress is that progress has to acknowledged for it to be meaningful. From my perspective, Professor Gates seemingly refuses to celebrate the inroads; he is imbued with the past, his lens of reality shaped by that past, it is the very bread and butter of his table ....but our kids, the coming generations, have not had that experience -- kids in Cambridge enjoy the reality of a black mayor, a black governor, a black president. Their paradigm of possibility and potential has shifted, as they go forward. And yet, problems stagnate, then fester, when society has to be defined and redefined by the past. Racial progress is happening, and yes, it is also fragile --but when allegations are made in anger, or in humiliation, or without facts, or with an agenda, then progress crumbles ---people with their own sufferings and experiences (outside of the black experience) believe they are being ignored, people take sides. Is a tragedy when society is blind to progress.

There is a poignant article in the LA Times by the daughter of another black man who went to Harvard in the early 1940's, Lurita Doan, her father was Lucien Alexis. The article is entitled , "On race, Harvard still must learn."http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-doan2-2009aug02%2C0%2C4175835.story

Fortunately, Ms. Doan's insights on the progress of race relations can be read without any distracting invective, or conspicuous political spin. Mrs. Doan has a story to tell, and with that story she inspires the reader to look to a more optimistic future. That's what I want for my children.... not living in the despair of the past, but in the progress of the present, and the anticipation of a just future. To President Obama and his friend, Mr. Gates.... please do not deny the progress of an entire society.

Hold on! He turned the gaffe into a positive? I don't know what you were watching or drinking, but the rest of us saw a black Harvard tenured professor do a dumb thing, backed up by the black mayor of Cambridge in a state governed by a black man in a Nation led by a black man all decrying how unfair America is to blacks....what did I miss that made this into anything but going from dumb to dumber? A fawning MSM then tripped over itself to re install the Dalibama to his throne in their mythical Camelot. The vast majority of us are rather disgusted with all of them. Acted parties acted stupidly, but typically.

I must have missed the part where the President admitted he did anything wrong. All I saw and heard was a regret expressed over how others perceived what he said (in other words someone else was wrong), a racially based excuse for his own comment, and a desire to "recalibrate" his words. Had I been called on the carpet for saying something wrong by my boss and tried to rationalize my way out of it like that I guarantee you my boss wouldn't have seen that as anything resembling strong leadership.

I think President Obama made a mistake by responding to that reporters question. He should of remained neutral and stayed out of it. But at least he did own up to his error and tried to make ammends for it. He admitted at the beginning of his Presidency that he was going to make mistakes.

It is interesting that reporters did not ask President Bush about what he thought when all of that Gena 6 busines was going on in Louisiana.

I have a black boss. He is an attractive, successful, well-dressed, gentle and intelligent man. He told me once that, now in his sixties, he is still always careful to keep his hands in plain sight in a store. I can't even imagine living my life restricted like that. Everyone needs to just shut up and get over who was right and who was wrong. We've all had moments we wish we could re-live.

Why was the question worded with "beer garden summit?" Are there any better words that actually described either event? Yes, a President and anyone else must not say outloud what they are thinking. (The media will not step over you- they will kick and jump up and down on you and try handcuffs.The "police acted stupidly" unless they followed police procedures that state that if a person is loud, rude he/she should be arrested. I can see that if a person is punching, kicking and hitting the police- handcuffs are in order unless the police can exit the house and send another office back with the name and badge number of the policeman in question.It still is a "teachable situation," and I am sure that the Cambridge officers will take a good, long look at what happened....and perhaps, our President, will watch for the "gotcha questioners." Now that will be a learning situation all around.

Because he is both a Democrat and part black, Obama will be held to a higher standard of behavior than his predecessors, especially George W. Bush.

The MSM and Republicans will do this all day long, every day, for the next 8 years.

That said, I get the feeling the President knew his unrehearsed remark was a mistake within 3 seconds of saying it.

I believe real leadership is flexible and bends with the wind, but does not stiffen and fall right over, broken.

Obama demonstrated that -- and how much you want to bet he doesn't make this mistake again? He's flexible enough to bounce back from his mistakes without completely falling over.

I like that.

PS: in college towns like Durham there is considerable discussion about "town and gown" issues. Can this be just as much about "Harvard" Gates vs. "townie" police officers?

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/28779/

While our Supreme Leader strolls ahead without a care or a thought about Professor Gates' inablity to walk down the steps while using his cane, look at this picture and see who helped him down the steps.

This is the most telling moment of the theatre play that Obama put on for the public to escape justified criticism of his remarks and spin and falure to apologize.

One picture is worth 10,000 words.

Sad - everyone on the panel is a white guy. I wonder how a person of color (any) or woman might react. I think that says alot about opportunities and race relations in the US today. We're not a post-racial society at all.

Today on the Tyra Banks show there was a much better discussion of race issues than anything that could ever come from the Beer Summit. That was all done to smooth over stupid behavior by people that did not think before opening their mouth! And the press bought it HLS!

Obama got it exactly right. The police were wrong to have arrested Gates. He had not broken any laws. It was clear that Obama very purposefully made his remarks about it, and his purpose was to highlight racial profiling and the bigger issues that are behind it.

It was a gutsy move by Obama, based upon the totally distorted response he knew it would raise in his opponents. Which it did. That distorted response from his opponents was what he then responded to with the beer summit. The distorted response got all of the media attention, instead of the actual fact that Gates arrest was wrong from the get go. The police acted illegally.

The bottom line is you appreciate the police protecting your home, you don't yell racial slurs at them, and you don’t support such behavior. Obama and Gates have shown their true racial colors.

.

Success? What success? PBO said it and he owns it. You can't unring a bell.

On Newsday.com: "In a widely quoted post on The Daily Beast, Gates wrote of Crowley: "He should have gotten out of there and said, 'I'm sorry, sir, good luck. Loved your PBS series - check with you later!' " These are not simply the words of a man understandably angry at being arrested at his own home. They are the words of someone miffed that he wasn't recognized as a celebrity."

This was all a conflict of ego and class.

It would have been better if the President had made more of an effort to gather the facts and think through his answer before his news conference. Nevertheless, even at the news conference his answer was more reasonable than the comments on the incident from most liberal politicians black or white. He could not really avoid commenting on the incident and any comment was sure to offend someone. In the end, he seems to have succeeded in doing a much better job of responding to the incident than almost any of his supporters. But the President's personal exprience may be a factor. He is not likely to suffer from the illusion that being white confers some magic immunity to all forms of social discrimination.

We keep waiting for President Obama to learn when to speak and when not to comment. This is why he needed a few more years in the Senate before becoming President. He's just not prepared. He keeps saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Every President slips, but President Obama seems to be apologizing every hour on the half...

The president's mistake didn't lead to a war or a $500,000,000,000 bill for a war or the collapse of our economy. It was nothing but momentarily bad PR. It only lives on in the press, which continues to teach itself how to prolong a dead story.

It was inappropriate for a President to discuss a local issue that he knew nothing about. Hopefully, Obama will learn from this.

President Obaba enflamed feelings on both sides of the racial divide with his gratuitous criticism of Sgt. Crowley and the Cambridge police. And he used evasive language in saying he "could have calibrated" his words differently. This was more like old politics than change we should believe in

"With his beer-garden summit, President Obama managed to turn a divisive and attention-diverting comment into a national feel-good moment."

What fresh nonsense is this? Obama said when in doubt the police are wrong and the brother is right, and it is okay to insult the police.

Nothing has changed.

I mean politicians always hope people have short memories, but cops don't.

In their insulated worlds, Obama and Gates can shrug this off and pretend everything is fine ... but it isn't.

Obama lost his entire "healing the races" mystique in one sentence when he stood by the brother - who was tired, cranky, and anxious for some attention.

What does Obama's misstep and recovery on Gates-Crowley teach us about leadership?

Keep your mouth closed until you get all the facts for fear of "acting stupidly."

...the wonderful thing is that Obama was right. It *was* a stupid arrest. For several reasons. What he did that was "wrong", however, was the same thing that Gates did that was "wrong". Dare to speak up. The Establishment leapt to put him in his place.

That is ALL that they care about here. Obama, wisely, didn't take on the Establishment, instead he "embraced and expanded" it in classic Microsoft fashion. Showing by example that a little calmness in a hectic situation will go a long way.

He didn't *prosecute* Crowley (for, say, violating Gates' civil rights), or have him persecuted, like the DC government would have done if a DC cop had arrested some high muckety-muck (say, one of Fenty's faves). He just deflated the situation. Crowley walked away with some self-esteem (for not having his knees cut out from under him, officially, beyond the fact that the charges were dropped) and Gates walked away with some self-esteem (for having been absolutely vindicated by 99% of the USA in terms of being arrested in his own house for being black and the wrongness of that)

The issue still remains though. The issue still stands, there, like the 900 pound gorilla.

Was Crowley right to arrest Gates, based on what Gates had done, was doing, had said, was saying? Yes and no. yes, if Gates was actually hindering Crowley in the execution of his duties as an officer, was actually harassing Crowley, but no, not simply for giving Crowley a hard time. And even if so the proper charge was not "disturbing the peace". It was "assault on an officer".

So the real issue is that both were wrong and knowing it, Obama was content to let them sit there, realize it, admit it to themselves, and realize they both were lucky to walk away with a tie. Trust me this issue is going to play out again. Nothing was really solved here.

...the bottom line is that race is clearly still a factor in this issue because one has to face the fact that a white person would, most likely, not have been arrested in that situation. It is still the officer's choice, and as long as that is the case, as long as it is the offiers' discretion, race is going to play a part.

The big thing for the police here was that they protected that power on the part of the police. That no matter what, it is not wrong for the cops to simply arrest someone if they see fit to do so. The big thing for Obama and for Gates and for any other black man in the country, is that they are NOT arrested for being black in their own house or (and this goes for a whole lot of other people) for giving the police a piece of their mind.

The bottom line is that the police cannot -it has been established by the Supreme Court- arrest you just for lipping off to the cops. But!!! They can arrest you for any "legitimate" reason...what you might call "lipping-off", they will just call "interfering with the police in the lawful execution of their duties".

And still this is going to result in an arrest more for blacks than for whites. Just like any other arrest. Like any other accusation. That is not going to change.

Obama is still trying to remove his foot from his mouth. Gates caused this hoop-la and now wants it to go away. Obama wanted a photo op brought more attention to this. Still waiting for an apology from both these gents, then it would be put to bed.

There was no "mistep" by the President. He planned to start the conversation and get people talking about what happened/ns in the real world. Do not be fooled and believe he aimed to take anything back. He meant what he said the first time. There had to be at least ONE president in our lifetime who was going to say such and understand the meaning of it. He is the one.....not necessarily THE ONE!

"Leadership". What leadership? I suppose the real questions here that never seem to be asked let alone answered is what is the litmus test, what is the criteria, what is acceptable state of normality that needs to be achieved and then maintained where "race" relations reach the proverbial "I have a dream" Utopia? Who is going to declare that America is now the land of the equal. Fueled by ridiculous race centric persons like Gates, Obama, Sharpton, Wright, Jackson, et al, the answer is not in my lifetime, not in my daughter;s lifetime, not in her children's lifetime, nor their children's children by the look of things.

The late, great Roy Wilkins must be turning over in his grave.

Everyone, yes everyone, has a stupid streak or shall we say will react irrationally to some stimulus. Prez reacted to a real button which any member of any minority can understand. His Gates reaction was ill advised even though the cop was stupid.

Hey Nick: ThaT'S WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT black Presidents. (excuse caps)

THE LESSONS

1. MESSIAH is not as smart as he thinks. Actually knowing facts helps. This is showing in a GLARING fashion in health care -- FANNIE/FREDDIE PROVED how INCOMPETENT government can be.

2. Mr. "$400,000/year" Gates -- realizing he had screwed up -- fled his ridiculous position has fast as possible. He's not as dumb as he seems. He's making a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$.

3. Sgt. Crowley followed the book. He showed patience, allowing Rich Man Gates to shout and temper-tandrum for a few minutes, then finally quieting him down. He's gunning for police chief.

For sure this beer fest proves only that Obama is a snake oil salesman. Having a beer with two white guys will never remove the fact that both Gates and Obama are deep rooted racists. We the people are not stupid.

While I try and respect the office of the Presidency, I have never looked at the President as a role model (a learned response) -- this incident is a perfect example why.

I think all Officer Crowley and Professor Gates both made misteps which resulted in this snafu. Decent people can let their tempers get away from them and over react.

As much as it amused me to hear President Obama speak as a man and not a president when he reacted to reporters questions about his friends arrest- it was inappropriate. I can forgive him for it, because he handled his mistake appropriately. Thats all any of us can do.

Can we now go back to whats important and talk about why there are still such deep racial and class issues in this country?

It's comical,
Let's face the facts, Obama is surrounded by a contingent of Law and Security...

Elite are often blind to the common people.
Until they need something.

In my opinion, had he known any of those officers or security that protect him ,
The statement(s) would never have come out.

Jay

What's missing mostly in this debate about Mr. Gates arrest, and President Obama's comments, is that Crowley had no right to arrest Gates in his own home, once it was clear that Gates in fact was home. Crowley simply used his policing authority to punish a citizen who said something he didn't like. We in America, should not seek to encourage this type of behavior from police, for it can be a slippery slop for all of us. Despite what you think about Gates' reaction to being confronted in his own home, he did not commit a crime and should not have been arrested. Instead of using the word "stupidly" the President could have just as legimately said, "illegally" to make his point. This is a teachable moment...

Obama is way ahead of people who are rigid in their thinking and opinions. He is not afraid to admit to being imperfect which the rest of us ought to do more often. Solid leadership thinking mixed with a good portion of basic humanity.

No-one came out of this imbroglio looking good. I devised the Gates-Crowley-Obama Decision-Making Grid:

http://PredictableSuccess.com/blog/gates-crowley-obama-decision-making-grid/

Despite all the expected cheering from the MSM grandstand, the fact remains that Obama once again showed his inability to be President. He certainly opened his mouth before engaging his brain, defending his old "friend", who is described as a Leftist. The public garden beer session was the usual Hollywood type spin, designed to substitute form for substance. No leadership, just another attempt at a con job.

Questioon: Why are all these panel guys
white? And where are the women? Talk about discriminators talking about discrimination!

What "recovery" ?
Obama did not apologize -- to Sgt. Crowley or America.
Obama took an question about the incident and turned it into racial profiling.
Is Obama going to do this whenever the whim strikes him? There was NO racial profiling, except by Gates and by Obama.
So, in the future we can expect more of this from Obama? Is this what he is? Is this the "teachable moment" -- about Obama and what he really feels? Some teachable moment!

The issue that should take precidence is this: What occurs when a person of color tells the TRUTH about the police....and Caicasians go apoplectic about hearing such??

The majority of Americans will side with the police...but people of color have different occurrances with encounters with police. The President spoke from his heart...and from his experiences; America should have the ability to understand...comprehend....and resolve!! Leadership means to speak the truth...however difficult it may be to understand; the first words were the CORRECT words!!

For those who believe that the police do not act "STUPIDLY"...remember Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, and Kathryn Johnston!!