PrintObama's Empathy Backfires
Despite a recent Rasmussen Poll showing Obama’s disapproval rating topping 50% for the first time since his election last year, the president has refused to retract his assertion that the Cambridge police acted “stupidly” by arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Associated Press is reporting that Obama still stands by his claim that Gates should not have been arrested and that “cooler heads should have prevailed” during the encounter.
However, Mr. Obama’s over-generalization about “cooler heads” may be headed for trouble. Indeed, in a recent interview with the Huffington Post, Stephen Killion, president of the Cambridge Police Patrol Officer’s Association, said that audiotapes of the encounter would vindicate Sgt. Crowley’s version of the events and prove that Gates “turned this non-incident into a racial incident.”
In addition, Killion said:
But Killion was not finished. As for President Obama’s assertion that the Cambridge Police “acted stupidly” Killion responded:
When one considers the enormous fallout that will probably accompany President Obama’s disastrous decision to defend Mr. Gates one can understand Mr. Killion’s frustration. President Obama in my opinion may have just sent a message to millions of young people that “getting in the faces” of our law enforcement officers as Mr. Gates apparently did is, well, negotiable.
Many Americans felt the same way – “disgraced” – when Bill Clinton disgraced the Oval Office with a young intern named Monica Lewinsky. Millions of young people also heard a message about oral sex that may have conflicted with their parents’ teaching on respect and restraint. Like President Clinton, President Obama is letting his empathy cloud his objectivity, and it will affect more people than he will ever know.
For some refreshing objectivity Mr. Obama may want to check out his recent 51% disapproval rating. The numbers aren’t too empathetic.
