Happy Hour at the White House .... but where's my Timmy?

Henry Louis Gates Jr., a black Harvard scholar, and James Crowley, a white Cambridge, Mass. police sergeant had beers with Obama and Vice President Biden at a table near the Rose Garden

From all the hype, one would think that P-BO was hosting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il and Vladimir Putin. But as it was, the short conversation (a.k.a. publicity stunt) did little more than cement what was already known by almost all of us: Professor Gates lost his temper and spoke angrily (in his home) when faced by a white policeman at his back door; the white policeman (James Crowley--who goes by his initials: "J.C."), who wasn't pleased that an uppity African American professor [in private: that #%@#& n-word]--who had shown his identification--became angry at a white policeman (himself) and subsequently arrested the Harvard Professor and booked him for disorderly conduct (charges later dropped); and then to top it all off, the President and leader of the "free" world--who should have been in Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief in charge of the Cambridge policemen checking out a possible house break-in that fateful evening--made an "uncalibrated" statement about the policemen at the scene having "acted stupidly."

They all apologized--more or less. And the rest of us thought that the actions of the Cambridge policemen were simply simple-minded, and not out-and-out "stupid"; the President's comments were premature; and Professor Gates should have been more alert to the situation--even after having just returned from China and after a twenty-hour flight. (His suitcases were still sitting out in front of the house while the Event of the Century was taking place behind his home.)

The whole thing at the Rose Garden lasted about three minutes--but this will be a highlight of the nightly news (along with Michael Jackson's death) all the way through the 2012 Presidential campaigns ... and maybe beyond if Rush Limbaugh decides to run.