A beer party at the White House

Posted by Shyam Moondra

Today, President Barrack Obama is meeting over beer at the White House with his friend Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard professor, and Sgt. James Crowley of Cambridge (Mass.) Police Department to smooth over any misunderstandings resulting from the June 16th incident that ended up in Crowley arresting Gates for disorderly conduct, a charge that was later dropped.

On June 16, 2009, Gates (a black man) returned from a trip to China. He couldn't open the jammed door of his home so he and his car service driver (a black man) tried to push the door with their shoulders. A passerby, Lucia Whalen (a white woman), saw what was happening, so she made a 911 call to report this as a possible break-in attempt. A few minutes later, Crowley (a white man) came to investigate by which time Gates was already inside his home and the car driver had already left. Gates, a race relations expert, was angry at being asked to prove his identity in his own home and perceived this as a case of racial profiling. Crowley ended up arresting Gates for disorderly conduct and led him away in handcuffs. A few days later, Cambridge Police Department dropped the charge. Obama, when asked by a reporter at his press conference about the arrest of Gates, commented that he didn't have all the facts but he thought that the police acted "stupidly." That comment led to a huge political uproar drawing protest from law enforcement organizations and conservatives, drowning out Obama's message on his number one priority, the proposed health care plan. Obama returned to the White House briefing room and admitted that he could have worded his reaction better and revealed that he invited Gates and Crowley to meet over beer at the White House to talk about the incident and smooth over any misunderstandings.

Based on what we know, this is what I think about the persons involved in this whole thing:

· Obama: Being a black president, it is understandable that he is very sensitive to the issue of racial profiling, especially when one of his friends is involved. However, he was wrong to draw a conclusion (that the police acted stupidly) before he had all the facts. The choice of word ("stupidly") was not appropriate – it made him look un-presidential. However, once Obama realized that his remarks created a political backlash, at a time when he was trying to drive his message on his health care plan, he promptly met with the reporters to admit that he made a mistake. That was a gutsy move because presidents rarely admit that they made mistakes. Some people have questioned whether he should have commented at all on a local police incident. I think if it were proven that the incident involved race profiling then it would be appropriate for the president to talk about this. However, organizing a beer party at the White House seems like going too far – Obama has lot more important things to do than to try to smooth things over between Gates and Crowley. Well, now he has to deal with yet another controversy surrounding his choices of beer that will be served at today's meeting - domestic brewers are upset that the White House will be using beer manufactured by three foreign owned companies. I give Obama a "B."
· Gates: As an expert on race relations at Harvard, he saw his confrontation with Crowley as a case of race profiling. That thought led him to behave uncooperatively at a time when he should have been more understanding and he should have kept his cool. Crowley received a tip on a possible break-in, so he had no choice but to verify Gates' identity – that was proper police work. I give Gates a "C."
· Crowley: He may have acted by the book, but, clearly, he fumbled his job here. He should have been more patient and tolerant. He should have been mindful of the fact that Gates was angry because he was being asked to prove his identity in his own home (would not Crowley feel the same way, if he was in Gates shoes?). There is no indication that Gates was violent, so after he showed his identification cards, Crowley went too far in arresting Gates and hand-cuffing him for disorderly conduct – a charge that would not have stood a chance in a court of law (the police department was wise to drop the charge a few days later). You can't arrest a man because he is rude to the police. Would Crowley have arrested Gates, if Gates were a white man? Was Crowley simply showing off his police power or was he being racist? We will never know. Crowley wrote in his report that Whalen told him at the scene that she saw two black men – an assertion not supported by the 911 call transcript released by the Cambridge Police Department. I give Crowley a "D."
· Whalen: It's not clear if she did the right thing by reporting what she saw to the police in a 911 call. The call transcript indicates that she saw two pieces of luggage on the porch and she even speculated that the men could be living there and they may have been just trying to open the jammed door. The transcript also indicates that she didn't know if Gates was white or black or Hispanic, although she did say that one man (the car driver) looked like a Latino. The question I would have is if she would have done the same thing had she seen two white men trying to open the jammed door. We know how she would answer that question. Since we don't yet know much about her motivation in making the 911 call, I give her an "Incomplete."

Obama's poor execution may sink his approval rating

Posted by Shyam Moondra

Since Barrack Obama became the president, he has been saying all the right things. However, Obama's mode of operation has become an obstacle in achieving the desired end-results of his policies. Consequently, Obama's popularity has declined somewhat and is about to crash down unless he improves his execution.

Bill Clinton's presidential campaign strategy was based on "it's the economy, stupid" that led to his astounding victory over George H. W. Bush. After the election, Clinton exclusively focused on economy and he especially avoided making foreign trips. He even resisted getting involved in Kosovo as long as he could. His hands-on approach in formulating and executing economic policies paid off handsomely - he turned the budget deficit into a surplus and the American people enjoyed the longest period of prosperity in the modern history. Now we have a much more serious economic crisis but Obama has been spending way too much time traveling around the globe. When people are losing their jobs and homes at the fastest rate since the depression of the 1930's, it's hard to justify Obama's extensive travel plans. Surely, Obama has improved the image of the U.S. that was battered during the Bush years, but, at the moment, that's not what the American people want him to focus on - they want him to stop the bleeding of our economy.

One of the other operational problems Obama has is his desire to be in front of the cameras at all times. He suffers from overexposure because of his constant interviews, press conferences, speeches, video blogs, etc. The American people would rather see him working at his desk in the oval office and be focused on execution of his economic policies. Obama likes to tell Congress that he wants this or that by so and so date, and then becomes somewhat aloof from the process. The Congress then writes the legislation with the help of lobbyists, who are likely to insert all kinds of loopholes, diluting the reforms that were expected from the legislation. The case in point, the health care legislation - we keep hearing that Obama's original vision has been riddled with all kinds of concessions sought by the lobbyists that raise the question if the proposed legislation will achieve its originally stated goal of significantly reducing costs (in fact, the Congress is talking about imposing new taxes worth $1 trillion to pay for this proposed plan!). During the campaign, Obama promised he would reduce the role of lobbyists in the government, but right now just the opposite is happening. Why not Obama roll up his sleeves and sit down with the Congressional leaders and hammer out legislation rather than let the lobbyists write the laws? The American people want a more hands-on approach from Obama in lieu of his non-stop TV appearances and pronouncements.

Obama has been busy proposing a million different things but in the absence of focus and hands-on approach, nothing much is being accomplished – his emphasis is on quantity of things he proposes as opposed to getting things done right in a timely manner. Congress is not used to working on multiple things that fast, so what will come out would be half-baked goods that will not achieve the reforms that were originally envisioned. May be Obama could get done more by focusing on a fewer things at a time so that he can devote more time in executing things as opposed to proposing things.

Here are some examples of how Obama's poor execution is becoming an obstacle in achieving the desired results:

· In spite of huge stimulus spending, the economy continues to lose jobs and the unemployment rate continues to rise. The loss of jobs means more and more homeowners are joining the ranks of who can't keep up with their mortgage payments. That leads to more foreclosures and lower home prices. The American people would like to know why economy is not getting a lift from increased government expenditures – is it because the stimulus money is not being spent fast enough or the stimulus package was flawed? The proposed budget will sharply increase the national debt, so it is important to properly analyze why increased expenditures are not generating more jobs. Shouldn't Obama be focusing on analyzing the stimulus package and deciding what to do next?

· Foreclosures continue to be at near record levels. Shouldn't Obama take another look at homeowner assistance programs and come up with changes in the approach? Mortgage rates went up in recent weeks shutting down the refinance market - shouldn't Obama do something to bring down the mortgage rates to stimulate the demand for the houses? Economic turn around is contingent upon stabilizing the housing industry first.

· Oil prices have doubled in the last few months. Congress had a lot of hoopla when oil hit $150-a-barrel and it talked about reforming CFTC, limiting investment by speculators in oil and other commodities, eliminating the "Enron loophole" etc but nothing has happened. Why is Obama not doing anything about this? When commodity prices on the futures market go up and down by 100% or more in short periods without any change in the underlying fundamentals, then clearly something is very wrong with the way the markets operate.

· The outlandish executive compensation was a major issue during the campaign, but Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley just announced that they would put aside tens of billions of dollars for 2009 bonuses that is 50% more than the amount set aside for 2008 bonuses. Why has Obama not done anything on this issue? We need a law to limit CEO compensation at all publicly held companies, not just TARP companies.

· Everybody knows that investment banks and hedge funds manipulate the stock markets. There have been a lot of talk about twenty-first century regulatory reforms but nothing concrete has yet come out and market volatility continues to be an obstacle in getting the economic house in order. We need to clamp down on computerized day trading by investment banks and hedge funds that are destroying our markets.

· With the huge increase in government spending, the budget deficit is ballooning rapidly that almost guarantees that interest rates will go up in the coming months. Why has Obama not announced concrete plans on how the budget deficit and national debt would be brought down?

If Obama doesn't change his mode of operation and exclusively focus on deteriorating economy, his approval rating will crash in coming weeks and months. Obama has a real opportunity to be a great president but he is blowing it away by not being on the top of things in seeing that the economy rebounds quickly.