I disagree.  By planting the press con question (his response clearly indicates it was prepared, not just 'off the cuff' like the Joe the Plumber conversation), he made an overt error in judgement.  I'd expect such comments from Al Sharpton or Jeremiah Wright, but not POTUS.  The graciousness of Crowley & Gates allowed him to whitewash it a little, but that hardly 'settles' the issue.

aRE YOU NOT BEING TOO HArsh? aFTERALL, the matter is hardly worth the attention it has received and Obama kinda made up for the "stupid" remerk and moved on.

As for error in judgement, I would say that the choice of words was wrong and thats all.

I agree with you that his careful choice of words, to the point of enumerating them, was wrong.  But I don't believe I'm being too harsh at all - he wanted the question, said what he meant and meant what he said.  That's a calculated error in judgment, not simply a 'poor choice of words' (which has become the standard dodge for all politicians in recent years).

"I don't deny that racism exists; that's a given. I would, however, wonder if it still exists to the degree which Gates and the other, more prominent race baiters and hustlers I mentioned above insist that it does, and without their gracious assistance in keeping the fire stoked. How many blacks in this nation in, say, the last 20-25 years, have encountered blatant, real, undeniable racism? Probably not as many as one might think, and they probably wouldn't know how to react if they did."

I remember Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days program in which he got a redneck with strong anti-Islamic views to spend 30 days dressed as a Muslim. One of the first things this man commented on was how incredibly differently he was treated, down to the most subtle things like constantly being stared at.

Then there are incidents that could be racially motivated, but might not be. There is a tendency for black people to be overdefensive about things and blame things on racism. But equally, there is a strong tendency for the JU Right to pretend that just because nobody said anything about race, that there wasn't a racial motivation. In some cases, they mayb be right. But it is naive to think it doesn't happen. The overreaction of black people stems from the fact that they know they deal with these sorts of incident a lot more often than most of the rest of us. Funny coincidence huh.

There are also little things that aren't particularly negative, but which show something's still not quite right in people's minds. A friend of mine likes to laugh at the story of how often he has the following conversation (he is black, and we live in Australia to give you context):

"Where are you from?"

My friend: "Australia"

"Yeah, but where are you really from?"

No one ever asks me the same question. It's not a particularly negative experience for him, but it just shows the way people still don't quite accept the idea of him being as Australian as me.

Maybe if people like yourselves weren't so quick to pretend there is no more racism at all, black people wouldn't be so keen to claim it all the time.

Oh, yes, that's a huge problem...

We have many Muslim immigrants in Europe. And pretty much all of them are obvious Muslims. If any of them try to hide it, they do it well. But those that don't hide it don't seem to be too afraid of being known Muslims.

I find such experiments very interesting.

My favourite combination is of course about sending pro-Israel and anti-Israel activists into battle. The Zionist should dress up as an Arab (or Arab nationalist) and walk through Tel Aviv and the anti-Zionist should dress up as a Jew (or Zionist) and walk through Cairo. Then both can experience how the two sides treat each other. I often offer myself as a candidate but could never find an anti-Zionist who was willing to put his opinions about who hates whom to the test.

Peace is what you have when both sides merely stare at each other.

Quite the opposite here in many cases. Lot's of black folks will tell you they are from Africa, yet they (or nobody in their family going back 4 or 5 generations) have ever even visited Africa.

On the team I work with, I'm the only white guy (and only conservative to boot), yet we all get along like brothers, which is great since our work takes us around the world. Three weeks ago, my co-workers and I were talking about a recent National Geographic show about everyone coming from Africa. I joked about my "African" heritage, and we all had a laugh.

Now last week, while waiting on some access issued to be resolve, my co-workers and I were waiting with the receptionist, a nice 40ish black woman. She was asking a bit about each of us, were we were from and all. When she got to me and looked at my last name, she asked were I was from. I told her Africa. Her eye's grew big as saucers and my co-workers were practically rolling on the floor laughing. One of them told her about the NG show and she finally got a chuckle too.

My point is I don't care where you think you're from, when I ask the question, I mean where were you born, because I know we are all "from" Africa. I gage folks on how they treat me and others around them. IMO race relations have advanced so far that some people just can't believe it isn't nearly the issue it was even 20 years ago.