Thank you, Mike Huckabee... Friday, President Obama once again waded into the George Zimmerman trial controversy. When the case first appeared, he said Trayvon Martin could have been his son. This time, he said that 35 years ago, he could’ve been Trayvon Martin. And he said that as a black man, before he became a senator, he knew how it felt to be profiled, to be followed in stores or hear car doors lock as he crossed the street. I’m sure his words were meant sincerely. And as the first black President, he certainly has a unique perspective on race, and one that it might benefit America to hear. Unfortunately, the timing and the way it was presented were more polarizing than enlightening. An exhaustive FBI investigation found no evidence that Zimmerman was a racist. They found that he was suspicious of Martin because of his behavior, and the jury agreed. It wasn’t murder, it was self-defense. On the eve of all the protests of the trial verdict, as President of all Americans and the chief law enforcement officer of the entire nation, how much better would it have been for Obama not to have echoed the misinformation of the agitators or shown disrespect to Florida, which some say went above and beyond – far beyond -- in trying to prosecute Zimmerman. Obama’s first inclination after the trial was to urge all Americans to peacefully accept that we have a justice system, and to respect the outcome of that system. What happened to that? I always say that a good leader is a thermostat, not a thermometer. That means that when the hotheads are trying to heat up a situation, a real leader stands up and tries to cool it down. He doesn’t just wade in and reflect the same heat back. On the race issue, President Obama isn’t being a leader. He’s being a thermometer.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 18:51:52 +0000
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