Point one, he's not getting involved to resolve legal issues.
And beyond that, the President's getting involved because this is a national event- as in events like this happen everywhere- and he's symbolically attempting to fix things.
That, and to inject my own thoughts here, I think that to a certain extent he's expected to weigh in on it because he's black (I know, half black- but that's not how most people think of him), and because he did weigh in on it and make a judgment, it became a political football. Republicans can push a narrative of him being inept and saying unwise things, unless he can make both sides at least appear to get along. At which point he scores political points in the 'healing of racism' narrative, and the Republican party heads either drop it entirely or are reduced back to the status-quo of declaring racism over (and thus, anything said or done can't be racist).
Politics, at the national level, as usual. Or at least as usual as anything with this administration. Obama's struck me as a not-normal President on a number of things. Which would be bad, if he doesn't seem to have rational reasons for these aberrations.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2009-07-29 06:12 pm (UTC)And beyond that, the President's getting involved because this is a national event- as in events like this happen everywhere- and he's symbolically attempting to fix things.
That, and to inject my own thoughts here, I think that to a certain extent he's expected to weigh in on it because he's black (I know, half black- but that's not how most people think of him), and because he did weigh in on it and make a judgment, it became a political football. Republicans can push a narrative of him being inept and saying unwise things, unless he can make both sides at least appear to get along. At which point he scores political points in the 'healing of racism' narrative, and the Republican party heads either drop it entirely or are reduced back to the status-quo of declaring racism over (and thus, anything said or done can't be racist).
Politics, at the national level, as usual. Or at least as usual as anything with this administration. Obama's struck me as a not-normal President on a number of things. Which would be bad, if he doesn't seem to have rational reasons for these aberrations.