Gates and the Press Conference

Accounts of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. differ but it is clear that from the beginning Gates resented having to answer to a policeman. His own account indicates that he was certain from the beginning that the police sergeant was racially motivated. On his part, Sgt. Crowley says that he had to investigate a report of two men breaking into a house and that Gates refused to answer basic questions such as if there was a second person in the house.

It is pretty much a given in this country that anyone who starts yelling at a cop who is performing routine duties is going to be hauled off in handcuffs but that charges will be dropped later. This happens everywhere regardless of the color of the person doing the shouting.

Regardless, even though this event had been reported nationally, it is not something that the President should concern himself with. It is a local matter and the president is trying to push through what is likely to be the most important legislation of his presidency.

So why did Obama answer a question about the Gates case? You don't get to be president without knowing how to duck a question. He stared by admitting that he didn't know all of the facts of the case, then offered an opinion anyway. Worse, the opinion injected race into the press conference. When the first black president (not counting Clinton) starts talking about race it's news, especially when the rest of the press conference was boring.

So yesterday's headline nationwide was that the President called a cop stupid. The White House tried to soften it but that just put the story back in the news cycle. Progressives quickly started complaining that the Gates story was somehow being used to distract from the "real" story - Obama on health.

What happened? How did the story get away from the White House?

Obama is learning that simply holding a press conference is not enough. You have to have new or memorable content. Most politicians try to control this by using sound bites - memorable phrases that the press is likely to pick up. Obama eschews sound bites. His theory is that people should listen to his entire speech, not just small bits. Accordingly his speeches and press conferences tend to be bland.

In addition, he didn't have anything new to offer on health care. No progress had been made in Congress. He didn't say anything memorable about health care except a possible Matrix reference (red pill/blue pill). With no sound bites and nothing new, editors lead with the one new thing he did say - a condemnation of police officers made without the facts.

This may have doomed health care. It certainly cost it all momentum. Ironically, it might be to Obama's advantage that the Senate will not vote on health care until this Fall. With the Gates distraction still going strong, the White House is not in a position to mobilize public opinion in time for an August vote. With an extra month to regroup, Obama might have a chance.

This is not a sure thing. Originally the Senate delay was seen as bad news for Obama. The mid-year economic report will be out by then and the country might not be willing to commit to new spending after seeing what a hole we are already in. Opponents of the bill will have a chance to read it and ferret out all possible objections. Worse, the public might be sick of health care by September and just want the issue to go away.