Obama is human after all

To me the more interesting and newsworthy element of Obama's "stupidly" remark regarding the arrest of Professor Gates by the Cambridge police is that President Obama has personal feelings on certain issues that probably catch even him by surprise. As controlled as he has been on some of the most difficult and complex of audiences and issues, this is the one that got him in a candid moment, albeit before the press corps, when a thoughtful and measured response is his norm. The fact that Professor Gates was a friend and that the issue itself is one that he and his friends have probably faced just greased the skids. It would be interesting if the news networks would survey their own staff, or ask for a show of hands when they have a group of diverse commentators on air, to see how many of them have been stopped by the police for reasons they felt were suspicious. The commentators talk about how this is a problem or not a problem in the abstract.