Barack Obama did serious damage to himself by wading into the Henry Louis Gates controversy last night. It wasn't presidential for the President to insert himself into the controversy over Gates' arrest, in response to Lynn Sweet's question last night. Moreover, Obama's position, in which he said to a national and international audience that Cambridge MA cops had acted "stupidly" in arresting that Harvard professor, won't prove to be smart or popular.
But in the meantime, the MSM is busy prostrating itself before Obama, taking his side in the controversy, and filling up the airwaves with guests who take Obama's side. And the cable news subset of the MSM of course fell into lockstep. On CNN in the last hour, Wolf Blitzer had on motor-mouthed liberal Michael Eric Dyson,who of course trashed the cops, and another black expert, whose name I missed, but who completely agreed with Dyson.
And on MSNBC, David Shuster and Tamron Hall piled on, while "interviewing" two guests, Democrat Peter Miranjian and black Republican Ron Christie. When Christie said that he thought it was a mistake for Obama to wade into the controversy, Hall (pictured above) jumped down his throat, saying, in effect, how dare anyone criticize Obama and thereby take attention away from the "real issue" of racial profiling, police misconduct, etc. One would never know that Hall is a reporter, not a commentator. And then Shuster offered some commentary of his own, declaring that the Gates controversy will "help" Obama, because his supporters will know that he sticks to his guns. What liberal b.s. Shuster is smarter than that.
Then came the Cambridge PD press conference, which MSNBC carried a little after 5 pm et today. But when Commissioner Robert Haas said that he was siding with Sgt. Crowley, MSNBC sure cut away quick.
MSNBC is doing its best to suck up to Obama, to keep their bailout money flowing to parent company GE, but it's going to be hard to do such defending. I could tell that Chris Matthews was not comfortable, because I am sure that his innermost sympathies are with the cops--although of course he can't say that on MSNBC.
As an aside, The Cable Gamer offers a special award for Spin Doctoring for his comments today. After Obama said that the Cambridge PD had acted "stupidly," Robert Gibbs loyally fell on the sword of his own credibility--and squashed what remained of his credibility in speaking to reporters:
"Let me be clear, he was not calling the officer stupid," Gibbs told reporters as Obama landed in Cleveland for two health care events Thursday.
It's been said before: Whenever a TV talking head says, "Let me be clear"--that's a sign that the talking head has no intention of being clear.
