Doubling Down

Super:

THE PRESIDENT CONTINUES TO ACT STUPIDLY: Today, Obama said that with all that's going on in the country with health care and the economy and the wars abroad, "it doesn't make sense to arrest a guy in his own home if he's not causing a serious disturbance." This is idiotic. Whether a person was justly arrested in connection based on a given incident has nothing to do with what's happening with health care or in foreign wars. Is Obama trying to say that the arrest would have been okay if everyone had health insurance, the economy was prosperous, and we were out of Iraq and Afghanistan?

Obama also said: "My suspicion is that words were exchanged between the police officer and Mr. Gates and that everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed. That's my suspicion." But why should the president articulate mere suspicions about a local police matter? And how can the president justify declaring, based on "suspicion," that a police officer acted "stupidly"? The answer, I think, is that he can't and should stop trying to.

Indeed, one could turn Obama's argument around and say that with the president trying to push through a health care bill, deal with the economy, etc. it doesn't make much sense for him to devote attention to a simple dispute between one citizen and the police.