Classmate's Blog

The Wall Street Journal writes, "President Barack Obama tried to step back from the contretemps over the arrest of African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., saying he "could have calibrated" his words differently when he said police had "acted stupidly" in handling the situation. The racial firestorm surrounding the country's first African-American president came as a shock to the White House, which had spent the prior two days dismissing it as a media creation." My classmate's blog about all the media hype over Obama's reaction to Gates is right on point. "It is not wise for a public figure, such as the President of the United States, to make a comment that might fire up racial tensions." When President Obama make a nerve-racking comment on the situation involving Gates and the police, it became like a giant elephant in the living room. I strongly agree with what my classmate said, "What I do not understand is how come this issue became so big that the president has to be personally involved." This whole issue should not have turned into such a huge deal, in my opinion. The media blew this incident up to something it wasn't. I also strongly agree with my classmates point she brings up, "Critics think that the president is being vocally involved way too much." Overall my classmate wrote a very good and thought provoking blog that I strongly agree and side with. "There is nothing to be gained by encouraging the media. Hopefully, from now on, the president will choose not to make comments on these kinds of problems and just focus on the real issues of our country."