Today’s the day that President Obama, Henry Gates and Officer Crowley will sit at a picnic table on the White House lawn and sip beers.
This may be the biggest risk of Obama’s young administration.
As I posted yesterday, Rasumussen Reports shows that a plurality of Americans believe that President Obama sees our society as something other than the fair, open society that most Americans believe it is. President Obama reinforced that perception in his original response to the Gates situation. As a result of this perception, President Obama will walk a very very fine line during his meeting.
If President Obama is perceived to have gone “over the thin blue line” as he addresses Officer Crowley he will further reinforce people’s perception that he ascribes to the vitriolic rhetoric of Jeremiah Wright and as we’ve now learned, statements made by Henry Gates himself. If Obama is perceived to have not supported a “brotha in the struggle” he risks putting a chink in the solid support the African American community has provided him thus far.
As an aside, the last group Obama can’t afford losing support from is the African American community. As Rasmussen reports Obama now has his lowest favorability and highest negative ratings to date. The only group who hasn’t started to defect from him are African Americans. If they start to slide, hello 40% favorability rating, goodbye Obama agenda!
If Obama comes out of his beer bash with nothing but “we laughed, we cried, we drank beer,” he will be seen as having responded to his own stupid gaff with nothing more than another self focused media moment.
Regardless of what does or doesn’t happen at this meeting, this was a dumb idea. In the world of politics you need to look at the value of each engagement asking “What is the upside” and “What is the downside”. In the case of this meeting, there is very little, if any upside and more than a modest opportunity to further harm his polling numbers.
Obama has proven time and again that he believes his personality and persona can save him from any real challenge or difficulty. Responding, “Beer? Brilliant!” when this meeting was suggested may be a response he’ll look back on and wish he hadn’t said.
