Very short and informative post....
You can smell the SARCASM there right??
I wish it were...You know what, I actually thought it was a joke until this morning.
One of the most eagerly awaited summits of President Barack Obama’s presidency is set for tonight: a man-to-man exchange over some cold beers involving the president and two men who unexpectedly found themselves at the center of a national debate over race and the police.
Obama is scheduled to sit down at the picnic table outside the Oval Office Thursday evening with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. Jim Crowley, who arrested the African-American professor earlier this month for disorderly conduct while responding to a call reporting an apparent break-in at Gates’s home.
Obama initially faulted the police for acting “stupidly,” but he later said he’d chosen his words poorly and that both sides overreacted. While
Obama said he viewed the White House invite for the men as a “teachable moment” for the country, aides to the president
seemed to be trying to diminish expectations for an event which has been the subject of widespread media fascination.
“The president doesn't have a formal agenda tonight,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday morning. “After having talked to these two decent men on the phone, he hopes that some of this will help foster a dialogue."
Gibbs said the event was not intended to be some sort of mutual contrition session. “We're not here to mediate apologies,” the spokesman said.
As the beer summit drew near, there was some controversy over the guest list. An attorney for the 911 caller who reported the apparent break-in suggested the caller also deserved an invite to the White House confab, particularly since she was blasted as a racist before the release of audio tapes that showed she never brought up the race of the two men she saw entering Gates’s home.
“The highly trained guys who reacted badly are getting together tomorrow for a beer at the White House, and that is a good thing,” Wendy Murphy, attorney for 911 caller Lucia Whalen, said Wednesday. “The one person whose actions are exemplary will be at work tomorrow in Cambridge. I don’t know, maybe it’s a guy thing.”
Asked about a possible invite for Whalen, Gibbs said, “That was never something that was discussed."
Crowley is even bringing his family with him for the visit, Gibbs said. Gates has kept a low profile since Obama publicly retreated from his initial comments.
A poll out Thursday found many Americans transfixed by the controversy over the arrest of Gates, who was returning from a trip to China when he encountered a stuck front door at his home and later got in a verbal altercation with Crowley. Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct, but prosecutors quickly dropped the charges.
Some 49 percent of Americans said they were following news about the arrest very closely, according to a Rasmussen survey. In the poll, 44 percent described Obama’s handling of the situation as “poor”—though that sentiment is not too distant from the president’s own admission that he chose his words poorly when he first addressed the subject last week.
As for their choice of beers, the summit does not yet appear to have produced a meeting of the minds. Obama will drink Bud Light. Crowley will sip Blue Moon. And Gates is said to prefer Red Stripe.
Sam Adams
So how much is this going to us?
Exactly. Who is paying for the round trip flights, transportation to and from the White House, over night stay in a hotel, and most importantly, the BEER!!!
Well, to answer my own question... we are!
I think the most important question is, what would you be drinking?
Me, I'll take a Yuengling.