http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/unapologetic-obama-ignores-traditional-democratic-playbook-in-cambridge-cops-controversy/Unapologetic Obama Ignores Traditional Democratic Playbook In Cambridge Cops Controversy
There’s been lots of talk to the effect that the White House moderated Obama’s initial claim that the Cambridge cops behaved “stupidly” — as if the massive controversy that erupted caused the White House to back off and admit error in order to tamp down the furor.
Actually,
what’s really striking about this whole mess is the degree to which Obama and his aides have refused to concede error. The White House seems to be proceeding from the premise that the President, even though he’s African American, just isn’t vulnerable to old-school efforts to paint him as an anti-cop liberal — and that race, the so-called third rail of American politics, no longer carries the potential to scorch Dems that it once did.Yes, the White House moderated his tone a bit. But what’s noteworthy is how little, not how much. In his first explanation yesterday, press sec Robert Gibbs did clarify that Obama never called the cop stupid. But that amounted to lawyerly and wholly unapologetic parsing. Gibbs went out of his way to say the President had no regrets.
Then, when Obama himself addressed the controversy last night, he did praise the officer’s service. But he cast this as a function of new information he’d learned, not as a retreat. He stuck to his core claim that the cop had been boneheaded in arresting a “middle aged man using a cane, who’s in his own home” — an echo of his initial dismissive tone.
And when Gibbs again addressed the story today, he said the President regretted what happened — but only because the press blew it out of proportion. Gibbs again struck the dominant tone that criticism of Obama’s reaction has been disproportionate, contrived, and worthy of little more than disdain.
Depending on your point of view, the White House’s refusal to admit error is either a fearless unwillingness to back off legitimate criticism of the cops, or a stubborn refusal to admit a blunder. Either way, it’s striking that the White House isn’t conceding any real ground amid an explosive race-based controversy that once would have left Dems far more timid and apologetic.
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