From the day the news hit the airwaves, TV and radio newscasters, pundits and their roundtable guests all around the dials have been beating the “race” drum.  One of Sean Hannity’s guests said that the entire episode with Gates and policeman Crowley was strictly about Gates being black.

And then comes the evening of President Obama’s healthcare press conference, his attempt to reach the American people and try to convince them that his administration has the solution to the problem of people not having health insurance.

Late in the press conference an enterprising reporter jumped off the healthcare bandwagon and asked Obama a question about the Professor Gates v. policeman Crowley incident.

I would like to see a show of hands:  How many of you were surprised that the president said the police acted stupidly?  I’m going to guess that at least some of you were amazed.

Here’s what I think happened next:

The Press had barely left the room when someone let Obama know that there was going to be trouble over his “stupidly” remark.  The Damage Control team hopped into action and…  I’m going to take a wild guess here and say that the president was irked that anyone would have a problem with anything he said …  and his Chief of Staff then started prepping pressman Gibbs, and anyone else who might be forced to speak, or trapped into speaking, for the president; his job would be trying to get everyone on the same page.  That page that reads something like, “People should know better than to be offended by anything President Obama says, anything so obvious (in any black v white situation the cops are automatically in the wrong) should not have to be explained or re-stated or excused.

Then the President says that – wait just a darned minute!  – he had every right  to comment on anything he darn well pleases.

Or does he?

He is, after all, the President of what has been the most powerful nation in the world.  Barack Obama has been getting away with playing “President” for over six months now but I’m still waiting for him to show some class and behave like the President of the United States.   Most Americans know that the Office commands respect but not necessarily the person who holds that office.

Everywhere I turn someone is trying to convince me that Obama is brilliant.  How brilliant does one have to be to realize that the President should be able to at least pretend -  in front of the cameras, anyway -  that they are leader of ALL the people, no matter their color.

I’m less and less impressed with Obama, the world leader.  So foolish a man is he that he imagines himself untouchable, he can say or do anything he wants or feels because he was elected by a slight majority of the voters.

When I saw a movie clip of Russian dignitaries were refusing to shake Obama ’s hand in a receiving line, I was angry at their gesture, the way our president was being treated.  You see, I understand the honor that the office of President commands, Obama does not.

When he speaks Obama is speaking as the President, no matter when it is, no matter where it is, no matter who is present, no matter who is listening.  I’m surprised that none of his friends or handlers, the people who touted him to the rest of the country, could make him understand that certain behaviors were unacceptable once sworn in to office.

But then again, arrogance could very well be the handicap that can get in the way of doing a good job, especially the job of being President.