The news media reported that Biden was drinking non-alcoholic beer. All humor aside, is Joe a friend of Bill W.?

budorob on July 31, 2009 at 9:38 AM

Probably has far more to do with his brain history than anything else, since Biden’s had an aneurism “repaired” (that is, that’s at least the one having been reported). He’s undoubtedly on medication for a variety of issues related to that, which renders alcohol among his poison pills.

At least, that’s my guess.

Yeah but who would think we’d ever see two black guys, and two white guys on the Presidential patio there drinking beer together AND one of the black guys is the President?
That is a positive thing I need to say.

johnnyU on August 1, 2009 at 9:13 AM

Symbolism over substance, huh?
Guess you must have missed the meetings between President Bush, VP Cheney, SecState Colin Powell and Dr. Condi Rice (who is not a guy, but more “diversely” a woman).
Why are we destroying our great republic so morons like you can get all misty-eyed over photo ops?

Maybe next time the Obamas go to England, PM Brown will serve some watermelon and Popeye’s fried chicken in a bucket!

Black trash.

Biden: … Hey, you heard this one? Knock-knock.”

Gates: “Who’s there?”

Biden: “Sgt Crowley.”

gary fouse on July 31, 2009 at 7:48 PM

LMAO! EPIC nail.

But this photo also says a lot. One is how the Prez is dressed, two is how all of this is going on behind him unbeknowst to him, and it shows the Officers true heart.

What the teachable moment is that President Obama is talking about I have no idea. Hopefully, he has learned not to jump into an issue in which, by his own admission, he has no personal knowledge, and declare that one side acted stupidly-then have to waste the next several days of his precious time trying to clean up his mess. Any “teachable moment” would have involved taping the conversation, which, in itself, would have destroyed any usefulness.

At this point, I would like to share a story from my youth. When I was 14 years old and growing up in Los Angeles, I was a punk, pure and simple. I thought I was a tough guy and liked to get into fights. One night, I was thrown out of an amusement park for some stupid thing I didn’t do and escorted out by an LAPD cop. He was an older guy probably burned out and counting the days to retirement. He took me into a side room and filled out a card on my (field Identification card). I was angry because I didn’t deserve to get thrown out of the park. Three times I called him a “dirty cop”. The third time, he proceeded to kick my butt. After that, I started listening. In the end, perhaps realizing he had crossed the line, he became friendly let me go since my attitude had dramatically changed. So was he wrong in what he did? Sure. Did I deserve it? You bet.

None of that suggests that Professor Gates should have been roughed up for his verbal tirade. But the point is that my incident had nothing to do with race. The cop was white and so was I. (I still am.) The lesson is when you engage in a dispute-verbally or physically-with the police, only bad things will happen. Gates was out of line and engaged in disorderly conduct. A couple of days after the incident, I caught a snippet of Gates being interviewed by someone in front of an outdoor crowd (I assume it was at Harvard.) I only caught a part, but I heard Gates talk of how this white cop was obviously not prepared for a black man to “get in his face”. (I am paraphrasing, but that is an accurate description of what Gates said.) So, I am now satisfied that Gates, as other witnesses have said, was being verbally abusive and acting in a disorderly manner that would have justified a charge of disorderly conduct. To say that Crowley was engaging in racial profiling is absurd. He was called to the scene of a possible home break-in and acted accordingly. He had no idea who he was going to encounter, and I have heard no witness state that Crowley was being other than professional in his behavior.

Again, teachable moment? Aside from the fact that white and black Americans view race through entirely different lens, which we know, I would like President Obama to tell us what we should learn from this.

gary fouse
DEA-retired
fousesquawk

It seems clear to me that Biden was brought in to fill a racial quota so that there would be 2 blacks and 2 whites for the photo-op…
But with Hussein being only half black, it’s still not weighed correctly. They should have invited Halle Berry too.

leftnomore on July 31, 2009 at 7:52 PM

And to confuse the racial calculus even furthter, Gates’ daughter is only half black. Gates’ first wife was white.

Way to keep it authentic, Skip.

It seems clear to me that Biden was brought in to fill a racial quota so that there would be 2 blacks and 2 whites for the photo-op…

But with Hussein being only half black, it’s still not weighed correctly. They should have invited Halle Berry too.

Gates: “Who’s there?”

Biden: “Sgt Crowley.”

Madison,I think it’s time for you to drop it,suck up your pride and acknowledge you were wrong.

MaximusConfessor on July 31, 2009 at 12:07 PM

That would require me to be wrong about you, which I’m not. Several other people have also made the discovery on their own. Keep it up. Eventually, a Buchanan thread will be the end of you.