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WASHINGTON -- Addressing the tempest created by his response earlier this week to the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., President Barack Obama said he could have "calibrated" his comments differently and expressed hope that the matter can become a "teachable moment." In a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room, Mr. Obama said he called the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, who he characterized as "an outstanding officer and a good man."

President Obama stopped short of an apology to Sgt. James Crowley on Friday for saying he "acted stupidly" for arresting black Harvard scholar Henry Lewis Gates Jr., but said he should have chosen his words more carefully. At an impromptu appearance at the daily White House briefing, Obama said he spoke with Crowley over the phone, and said he wanted to share a beer with Crowley and Gates at the White House. "Because this has been ratcheting up and I helped contribute to ratcheting it up, I want to make clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave...

Henry Louis Gates: James Crowley Is "A Rogue Policeman" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSBjU61drc0

HE MIGHT HAVE A SILVER TONGUE, BUT THAT DOESNT MEAN PRESIDENT OBAMA IS NOT TALKING CRAP. IN FACT, THE CRAP TALKED BY BARACK OBAMA IS SOME OF THE MOST CRAPTASTIC CRAP TALK A CRAP TALKERS EVER TALKED.

Well, that’s what happens when a President puts his foot in his mouth at the prime-time press conference he himself demanded. Fox News reporter Mike Emanuel tells Megyn Kelly that the new word out from Robert Gibbs is that Barack Obama is mystified about why the media would consider it a big deal when he accuses a local police department of acting “stupidly” in a case where he admitted he didn’t have all the facts. In other words, Obama is blaming the media for covering his remarks, even though they were televised live to over 28 million people (via Patrick...

This is so drenched in common sense, one wonders from where Obama gets his advice.

Cambridge, (MA) - July 33, 2009 – In a surprise public announcement before a startled Boston press corps this afternoon, Cambridge, Massachusetts police chief I. M. Faux declared that his officers have been ordered to no longer check the ID of any possible burglar caught in a home owned by African-Americans. According to Chief Faux, the new directive instructs officers that if they are called to a home owned by a black physician, for example, they are not to request any positive address verification-identification, even of the person inside the home at 3:00 A.M. is wearing a shirt that says...

Here is video of CNN Anchor Tony Harris losing it over the call by Police Officers in Cambridge, Massachusetts for President Obama to apologize for his accusation that they "acted stupidly" in arresting a Harvard Professor. Harris listened to reporter Don Lemon who was at the press conference, and then just lost it, saying "This is incendiary," referring to the call by the police for an Obama apology. He then put reporter Don Lemon on the spot to share a personal experience of profiling, which Lemon did not seem to want to do.. . . . . . (Watch Video)

President Obama’s diatribe against the Cambridge cops about the arrest of his friend Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. contains perhaps more than the so-called Mainstream Media is reporting. In fact, Barack Obama had his own ongoing ‘problem’ with the Cambridge police while he attended Harvard Law School. As first reported in March 2007 by the Somerville Times, Harvard law student Barack Obama accumulated 17 unpaid parking tickets between 1989-1991 - and never paid the fines ad associated penalties totaling $375 until a few weeks before announcing his presidential campaign. In other words, as a practicing lawyer in Chicago, he...

ABC News' Yunji de Nies, Sunlen Miller and Sarah Tobianski report:President Obama made his second surprise appearance before press in the briefing room to address what he called the “media frenzy” over his comments on the Skip Gates case.“The fact that it has garnered so much attention, I think, is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America,” The President said, “And, you know, so to the extent that my choice of words didn't illuminate, but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think that was unfortunate.”At about 2:15 pm today...

Shortly after the surprise phone call, Sergeant James M. Crowley told a fellow officer that President Obama expressed regret for jumping to conclusions and commenting that Cambridge police had "acted stupidly." The call pleased Crowley, according to the colleague, a veteran officer who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. Crowley told his fellow officer that he joked with the president. "Jimmy said, 'I'd be happy to come to the White House and sit down with you and Gates and have a beer,' " the veteran Cambridge officer said. "The president...

There is plenty to criticize in the strange case of the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates at his home by Cambridge, Mass. police. When police responded to a call that two men were apparently breaking into a residence, they found Mr. Gates had broken into his own home because he didn’t have his keys. That should have been enough to satisfy the police that Mr. Gates was not a burglar and the police then would have gone about their business. But, alas, things often turn out to not be as simple as they ought to be. Read...

AP: A black police officer who was at Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s home when the black Harvard scholar was arrested says he fully supports how his white fellow officer handled the situation. Sgt. Leon Lashley says Gates was probably tired and surprised when Sgt. James Crowley demanded identification from him as officers investigated a report of a burglary. Lashley says Gates' reaction to Crowley was "a little bit stranger than it should have been." Asked if Gates should have been arrested, Lashley said supported Crowley "100 percent."

The controversy over the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. escalated Friday, as Cambridge, Mass., police union officials called on President Obama to apologize for his criticism of the arresting officers and the White House moved to blunt criticism of the president's remarks... snip Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed a suggestion that the backlash from police groups could be distressing to the White House, given that Obama has enjoyed a positive relationship with the law enforcement community. "I think the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed McCain," Gibbs fired back, referring to Obama's...

Gibbs: Obama 'not calling officer stupid' By: Andy Barr July 23, 2009 01:37 PM EST The White House today sought to soften the tone of President Obama’s criticism of police in Cambridge, Mass. for arresting prominent professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his own home earlier this week. Asked about the incident at his nationally televised news conference last night, Obama said he thought “any of us would be pretty angry” about such an incident and that “the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.” But this morning...