Well, it has taken a little over six months for the love affair between the American people and President Barack Obama to finally “hit the rocks.” According to the latest MSNBC opinion poll, the president’s approval rating has dropped to around
40%; so what is the cause? Is it because of the high unemployment rate, slumping housing market, the “War on Terror,” Immigration, Global Warming, the National Debt, or how the Federal Stimulus money is being spent? Perhaps it has more to do with the question posed by reporter Lynn Sweet of the Chicago-Sun Times newspaper during President Obama’s July 22, 2009, Press Conference on Healthcare reform, when unexpectedly she asked regarding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates jr., "What does that incident say to you? And what does it say about race relations in America?" That poignantly explosive question as well as the response to it had ramifications which still reverberate since then and continue to be an issue of conversation at the office water cooler.
Is this a watershed moment when people get a dose of ‘reality’ and finally start to “smell the coffee?” President Obama did not volunteer the information and would not have weighed into the matter at all but like those great moments of historic irony; one simple, seemingly innocent, harmless or awkward moment can change everything. It seems that way too much has been made out of the President’s spontaneous and unscripted comment, but what of the reporter? Why did she ask this question and frame it in the particular way that she did; what was her purpose and motivation? In some way all of us got ‘punkd,’ because as a result of this mess, the contentious issue of “racial polarization,” not so much racial ‘profiling’ is front and center in American political and civic discourse. One can only wonder if this is the effect that Ms. Sweet wanted to achieve because like it or not it is here to stay and it isn’t going to go away that easily. Thanks a lot for bursting our bubble.
Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
July 30, 2009
pbks@hotmail.com
