Beer Summit
The first instance where the media teed up a question on race for our first post-racial healer-in-chief came in 2009, when police were called to the home of Henry Louis Gates, a friend of Obama’s and a professor at Harvard, after a neighbor reported a break-in (when they saw Gates struggling to enter his own home). Police arrived on the scene, and Gates was arrested after he became uncooperative.
Obama, during a press conference two days later, was asked about the incident and famously responded, “I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.”
It then came to light that Gates refused to give responding officers his identity and became belligerent with the officer on scene, Sgt. James Crowley, who arrested Gates for disorderly conduct.
When faced with criticism from law enforcement unions for his premature comments, Obama called the situation a “teachable moment” for the country (but not himself) and invited both Gates and Crowley to the White House for a “beer summit” to patch things up.
The punchline came when it was revealed Crowley taught a racial profiling course at the Lowell Police Academy and received high praise from officers of color that knew him.
More at Heat St. via Instapundit