"Stupid is as stupid does."

There were quite a few great lines in the movie Forrest Gump, including the one above. Our President proved the one above earlier this week, when during a press conference, when asked about the arrest of a Harvard Professor, he said the following:

" Well, I -- I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all the facts. What's been reported, though, is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house; there was a report called into the police station that there might be a burglary taking place. So far, so good, right? . . . They're -- they're -- they're reporting. The police are doing what they should. There's a call. They go investigate. What happens?
My understanding is [presumably from only talking with the professor], at that point, Professor Gates is already in his house. The police officer comes in. I'm sure there's some exchange of words. But my understanding is -- is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show that this is his house, and at that point he gets arrested for disorderly conduct, charges which are later dropped.
Now, I've -- I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home." See transcript published at http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/07/obama_july_22_2009_press_confe.html

Now, the President says that he's biased as a friend of the Professor. He also says, not once, but twice that he doesn't know the facts. And then he says one of the parties, the police (whom he notably did not call his friends) "acted stupidly". Yes, there was "stupid" [using the President's choice of words] behavior in connection with this incident, and it happened during the press conference with this response to a question about a local to Cambridge incident that the President had no business addressing.

Any person with a modicum of decent legal training would never say out loud, in a press conference no less, something along the lines of "I don't have all the facts, but I proclaim party A behaved stupidly." Especially when the person making the statement really should be an impartial party. After all, the President does not represent the professor. Instead, he should be doing his best to promote racial harmony in this country.

In fact, this President is in a unique position to work to bring the races together in this country, but he forewent the opportunity during the campaign, and he forewent the opportunity during the press conference this week. Instead, he just stirred up racial disharmony at the end of the press conference.

Notably, this sort of thing [aka foot in mouth disease] seems to show up most when the President is not reading off the teleprompter, but is answering questions off the cuff. Perhaps that's why, when a teleprompter blew over at the Air Force Academy graduation Vice President Biden quipped "what am I going to tell the President when I tell him his teleprompter is broken? What will he do then?" http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/05/27/biden_jokes_about_breaking_obamas_teleprompter_.html

While the President, first refused to apologize for his words, now he seems to be trying to back away from them (see http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090724/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_harvard_scholar ), unfortunately damage has been done. An out and out public apology is required. And, a word to the wise - even if the President learns all the facts, please stay out of a local Cambridge matter.