The Barack Backlash ; He Came to Power On a Tide of Optimism and Oratory. Now Obama Is Mired in an Idiotic Race Row,Bizarre Claims He Isn't American - and Taunts of Incompetence. Max Hastings,Who's Still an Admirer,Reports On ...

Summary

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ON THURSDAY night, the most powerful man on earth spent 55 minutes of his priceless time simply sharing a beer with a police officer from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Harvard professor.

This minutely orchestrated mS edia event was designed to rescue Barack Obama from the most idiotic, yet nonetheless damaging, row of his presidency.

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The Barack Backlash ; He Came to Power On a Tide of Optimism and Oratory. Now Obama Is Mired in an Idiotic Race Row,Bizarre Claims He Isn't American - and Taunts of Incompetence. Max Hastings,Who's Still an Admirer,Reports On ...

The American people are convulsed, not with laughter, because the story touches the obsessive issue of racism. It began a fortnight ago, when Professor Louis Gates locked himself out of his own house and set about breaking in.

A neighbour phoned police, reporting a suspected burglary. A police car arrived and an officer quizzed Gates. After an angry altercation, though the house owner proved his identity, he was arrested.

Louis Gates is black. He accused the cop, who is white, of racism. The story made all the newspapers. At a regular White House press co...

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