Before the new news, here’s a background that I wrote:

The recent arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates by white police officers assuming he was breaking into his own home have once again raised the issue of racial profiling in America.

Mr. Gates is a distinguished professor, but he was apparently locked out of his own home and tired to bust in through the backdoor with his driver. Naturally suspicious at the sight of two men trying to push through a backdoor, a police officer stopped them and then asked for ID after the fact, supposedly, when it was made pretty clear that the homes did belong to Mr. Gates. Although his driver did handover his ID, Mr. Gates, supposedly, refused to agree to the officer’s request, or demand if you want, and, supposedly, adopted a confrontational tone [the police report quotes Mr. Gates calling the officer a “racist” and stating “this is what happens to black men in America.” Mr. Gates, on the other hand, has stated to the media that the police report is “full of [the officer’s] broad imagination.”] Mr. Gates was then arrested for disorderly conduct.

The Cambridge police department has since long released Mr. Gates and dropped all charges. But the media storm did not go away as Mr. Gates today attended talk shows and self-righteously defended his demeanor and all but explicitly called the police a racist, because the officer, supposedly, arrested Mr. Gates for no other reason than because a white police officer resented a black man standing up to him.

In his Wednesday night press conference, President Obama was asked about the incident and after prefacing his remarks with the acknowledgment that he was not there and does not know “the facts,” the president made a swiping judgment and stated that the police officers behaved “stupidly” for continuing to investigate Mr. Gates even after it was clear, supposedly, that it was his property.

In doing so, President Obama has entered the minefield that is American discourse on anything related to race. Mr. Gates has been incredibly partisan in the media and framed this as a solely white v. black issue. The police officer who made the arrest has, naturally, called President Obama’s prejudgment “disappointing” and has refused to issue an apology requested, or demanded if you want, by Mr. Gates.

President Obama should have stayed away from his issue. Not only it is a not so clear cut and rather trivial Bostonian matter, it would suck in the president into a debate that would right now distract from his domestic agenda [not that that is a bad thing]. There is a time for a thoughtful discussion on racial profiling on America. But that time is when Obama can frame the debate, but by entering into a debate framed by others he risks entering not into thoughtfulness but into partisan bickering that is often what discussions on race in American look like.

President Obama should have known better than to act “stupidly.”

Someone in Obama’s White House must have read my post, because today President Obama made a rare appearance at the daily White House briefing and reported that he spoke with the officer he had insulted and that he language was unmeasured. The president said that his early comments about the officer being a stand-up guy had been confirmed in the call.

The president said that he would no longer on the matter and made it clear that he “retched up” the tensions of the issue.

President Obama then stated that he has invited the officer for a beer at the White House with professor Gates as a way to mend relations. That may be awkward.