It would be a god photo op for the president, but more importantly it would be a great teaching moment for racial understanding and dialogue. President Obama should definitely do that.

President Obama is not above apologizing for an error, nor is he a man who will back down from his beliefs (it WAS appropriate for him to address this story).

The final paragraph in which he recounts the press on the lawn exchange made me laugh. I love this man.

In other news around the country, Rahm Emanuel has met with Blue Dogs and says we may have a Healthcare Bill by next week. Here's the Huffington post:

Rahm Negotiates With Blue Dogs, Says Bill Could Come Next Week

The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner

First Posted: 07-24-09 08:59 AM | Updated: 07-24-09 01:08 PM

In an interview with NPR, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said that the House could vote on a health care bill next week, despite disagreements with conservative Democrats.

"I can tell you what I know, which is that the speaker today announced to the caucus that their intention is to go next week, and she is working toward that goal," Emanuel said.

The top Obama staffer met for several hours with Blue Dogs on Thursday in a hastily-called negotiating session. "We don't have an agreement, but we continue to talk and that's a good thing," Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), said after the meeting. White House aides were also optimistic that the talks would result in a floor vote for next week.

But differences remain, and some Democrats are ready to give up on negotiation soon. Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) announced that he may let the health care bill bypass his Energy and Commerce Committee, saying there is "no alternative" if Blue Dog Democrats don't accept a deal worked out Friday.

"I won't allow them to hand over control of our committee to Republicans," Waxman told reporters.

Asked about Waxman's suggestion, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told the Huffington Post that he'd prefer at this point to go through the regular committee process.

Emanuel also said he was pleased by Republicans' vows to obstruct the bill.

Emanuel shrugged off Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) comments Wednesday that health care is Obama's "Waterloo" and remarks Thursday by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) that Republicans are plotting the bill's demise on a "week by week" basis.

"At least they're honest about their motivation. Their view about health care is about defeating President Obama," he said. "Politically, I actually appreciate what they said."

"I'm OK with politics, as you well know," Emanuel elaborated. "They're seeing it in political terms, and they've decided that if they can beat the president on health care reform, they've scored a big political victory. But what they've also guaranteed in policy terms is that you have the status quo. I actually appreciate what Senator DeMint said and Senator Inhofe. I'm different than everybody, I'm not going to criticize them. I compliment them. They're honest."

The president has apologized. Gates and Crowley should both now apologize. Maybe that'll get the press off their lawns!

Bush would have gone to his grave rather than ever admit error, or bother looking into the facts of the matter. Obama comes out with a nice reasonable position, talks to the real people involved, and might just help open some real discussion on this issue.

It's wrong to prejudge police. But discrimination does still exist. But being hostile at the start due to past discrimination does nothing but make the whole situation worse.

He'll apologize to the families of the innocent people we kidnapped and tortured to death. Or the innocent people we're still holding, with no legal right to do so.

We picked a good one.

On the one hand, Gates was questioned for the crime of Being Black At Home, and arrested for the crime of Being Black And Rude To White Police. The only reason it's a story is because he was taken in and held for four hours. If the cops had walked away and saved their anger for someone else, this would be a non-event.

On the other hand, if Gates hadn't been so jet-lagged irritable maybe it might have occurred to him that these cops were defending his home from a reported burglary-in-progress.

And the President may be correct (his focus was stupidity, not racism), but what is he doing involving himself in a dismissed case of disorderly conduct in the first place? Hey, Mr. President, before you weigh in on beat cops for violating people's rights why don't you stop the domestic spying. Eh? EH???

Everyone in this story pisses me off.

I guess we all know now. The President "acted stupidly" in calling out the Cambridge Police Department when he didn't have all the facts, and the few facts he did have, he got mostly wrong.

So we've got the President backing down. But I don't think Gates will back down until there's some sort of forensic proof that his version of the story is wildly in error and it is clear that he acted egregiously in this case. And he is publicly confronted with it.

As for Sgt. Crowley, he seems to have the support of every publicly-identified eyewtiness so far. He's said he has nothing to apologize for, and I can't see any reason for him to apologize, either.

The sad truth is that, at least to a poor slob like me, Gates and Crowley are probably both pompous and/or arrogant jerks.

So now Obama has to bring them both to the White House and have an awkward Arafat/Sadat handshake photo-op so that he can actually hope to save some of the votes that he might as well have tossed in the trash after his previous remark.

I generally criticize Obama mercilessly for failing to live up to his promises on civil liberties, lack of transparency and executive privilege issues. I'm sure I'll be doing the same in an hour or two.

But the President is managing to do a truly good thing here, after I was convinced he had committed his first serious blunder by wading into a local controversy at the worst possible time.

This is a awe-inspiring use of the President's bully pulpit and a testimony to his incredible people skills, as well as his ability to gracefully apologize for his own shortcomings.

Now back to my normally scheduled criticisms.