Obama in hot soup

An article in a newspaper:

Obama says police acted 'stupidly' in arrest

By ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writer

Wed Jul 22, 10:09 pm ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Wednesday that police acted "stupidly" in the arrest of prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and that despite racial progress blacks and Hispanics are still singled out unfairly for arrest.

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"Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof he was in own home," Obama said during a prime-time news conference that otherwise focused on the health care debate.

Well, President Obama seems to have got himself into a problem that he didn’t want, by using the adjective ‘stupid’ to describe the action of Cambridge police.

Though all the while I have been saying I was a great admirer of President Obama, I do have to say that President Obama should not have said the word that he said. He himself seemed to have 'acted stupidly’ by saying that the police ‘acted stupidly’ in arresting Harvard scholar, Gates. One may be forgiven for saying that success has gone into Obama’s head, incapacitating him to act or say things with detachment, without prejudice. In the first place, he could have at least said words like ‘the Cambridge police were wrong in this case’ or better still, ‘the sergeant was wrong’. Unfortunately, due to his ignorance of the consequences, he had implicated the police force by saying that the Cambridge ‘police’ had acted ‘stupidly’. Now the police forces of the world will be eagerly watching the outcome of this ‘stupid’ utterance, not to mention the expectation of the police force of USA, of an act of penance from their president.

The only honourable way out for the President Obama is to say sorry to Sgt James Crawley, the Cambridge police and the general police force of USA, and that too, immediately. Any delay by explanations and excuses will only aggravate the situation, what with his popularity poll already going on the downside with the economy still not on the recovery road. Already, it has been said that in Cambridge, police union members have held a news conference in solidarity behind Sgt Crawley and are requesting a formal apology from Obama for his emotional outburst.