We're all about Teachable Moments

Bob Schieffer came across pretty well on the news the other day when he said that Mr. Obama was the one who clearly needed a "teachable moment," in this case when to button his lip. The written version of Schieffer's comments was in a curiously different vein- at least it's curious if you don't understand how things are classified in current media blame-jargon.
After reading this little piece, I am supposed to conclude:

1. Crowley, Gates, & Obama were all at fault (in that order?).

2. None of the players could really help themselves, only being human*.

3. When Schieffer writes "-my guess if they had said that is none of this would have even made the local news"** we're supposed to conclude that he either works for the media in another universe, or doesn't understand how the media manufactures news in ours.

*Note1: Since the principles of "everybody's a victim" must be applied, but isn't directly applicable in this case, this is implied as a close cousin.

**Note2: This quote applies only to Crowley and Gates, therefore additionally implying that if they had been more thoughtful and apologetic, they would have also spared their President the necessity of popping off and inserting both feet into his mouth.

Post & Prost

It appears (and I must use that word, treading very softly when dealing with the Internet) that heap big pow-wow, or burying of the hatchet has been suggested in the matter I posted on previously, that of Mr. Obama's latest derailment. Now we're going to raise a glass of beer in the White House, demonstrate some good fellowship, and that will settle matters. Or at least it will make (someone- fill in the blank) look better. This merely reinforces in me the initial concerns I had in this matter.

Somebody(or -ies) in the White House are spending time on this matter. Why?

I don't know about two of the three parties involved, but if I were the police officer, I would have to be out of my gourd to attend such a soirée....

A Basic Lack

The comments by Mr. Obama on the arrest of Mr. Gates is not merely another gaffe (recalling the Special Olympics comment on Leno). It's the lack of what used to be called Second Reflection; the ability to stand aside mentally and examine oneself and one's own actions and mental operations. As a matter of the fawning comparisons between the current occupant of the Oval Office and his predecessors, let me be brief: Lincoln had it, he doesn't.

The President of the United States has absolutely no role or business in making any comment whatsoever on the arrest of a person -however well known- in a college town in Massachusetts, or anywhere else. To do so shows a basic disconnect between the office and the person.

It is a basic lack of judgment, I am very much afraid. In terms of what transpires every day in our current culture, it has been called "living in hyper-reality," the sense that one hovers above everyone and everything, and is qualified -and entitled- to have opinions and make comments, no matter one's role or level of being informed.

It is most certainly not that Mr. Obama is unique in this regard. It does become both dismaying and worrisome when the President of the United States feels that he has to comment on matters at this level, instead of addressing the business of his office and the very real issues besetting this country.

Or- maybe that's the point.

It is. It isn't. We were misinformed; it is, all right....

Three weeks ago: "We are recovering from the recession."

Last week: -Recession figures get worse- .

This week: "We didn't have all the facts."

I don't think it takes any expatiation to figure who is making these statements.

Two questions:

1. If you don't have "all the facts," who does?

2. You may want to have recourse to the approach of a previous Democratic administration: "There appear to be no attractive courses of action." - Robert McNamara, re: the Vietnam War.