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Thank God Joe Biden was at the beer summit.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  July 30th, 2009 at 07:41 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Contra Allahpundit.  As one of Jake Tapper’s commenters noted, that way nobody else would have been able to get a word in edgewise.  Looking at the body language, that might have been for the best.

This really is iconic for Dizzy City, isn’t it? Four guys sitting around trying to pretend that their casual meet-and-greet-with-smiles-that-don’t-reach-the-eyes aren’t being filmed by umpteen billion different members of the media. No wonder the cameras kept moving around: the people that weren’t having cold beer were just as much part of the story as the people that were.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • JustLeaveMeAlone

    he should look at this video.

  • http://www.jeannie-ology.com jeannieology

    http://www.redstate.com/jd11756/2009/07/30/beer-pong-health-care-policy-tournament/

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    Now, they just laugh at us. I distinctly remember that was the same reaction during the Clinton years…there could be a trend here.

  • briann

    What was that!?! It looks like my daughters’ imaginary tea time in the back yard.

    I guess it goes with the Mom jeans, but wow. It’s tea time with Obama!

    -Bri

  • Swamp_Yankee

    You know he’s going to show up for any swill session on White House grounds.

    He and Crowley arent faking anything. If were just the two of the off camera, they’d be falling off there chairs by now.

  • SteveLA

    Just caught the post Beer Summit news conference staring Sgt Crowley, boy was he impressive.

  • bk

    Sheesh the body language speaks volumes. Even Obama was shoved back as far as he could get.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    Palin/Crowley 2012

    You just know someone was going to come up with that, so I figured I’d just get it done…

  • Swamp_Yankee

    Actual pic. True Boston Irish right there

    http://www.tommydoyles.com/blog/2009/07/president-obama-calls-seargant-james-crowley-during-lunch-at-tommy-doyles/

  • Swamp_Yankee

    nt

  • SteveLA

    A salmon maybe

  • AceInTX

    Office Crowley ended up being used as a prop to show everyone what a real guy Obama is…Gates gets to continue the lie that he was racially profiled…Biden gets face time….and increasingly irrelevant press gets an easy paycheck for taking pictures of four guys drinking beer and what does Corwley get out of it?

    He walks away looking like he had something to apologize for after all!

    I can tell you without a doubt…I’d allow myself to be staked out on top of a fire ant pile for three days before I’d have appeared at this sycophantic exercise in foppery, irrelevance and pathetic grandstanding!

    Crowley disparately needs someone to explain to him how he’s being used and played for a sucker!

  • AceInTX
  • blooch

    Police in Wonderland, with the Mad @$$Hatter, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee.

  • SteveLA

    You obviously did not catch Sgt Crowley’s post conference press conference. This gentleman will not be used and knows how to speak before a camera.

    Heck, someone run this man for public office, we need more cops in elected office.

  • AceInTX
  • AceInTX

    and you may be right…I certainly hope so…but how many people out there are like me who will never see the press conference who will be left with the impression that he was called up there because he did something wrong to begin with?

    I’ll try to catch the press conference somewhere…do you have a link?

  • AceInTX

    it definitely has that feel…

    What a joke!

  • Swamp_Yankee

  • SteveLA
  • AceInTX
  • AceInTX
  • Swamp_Yankee

  • Crowe

    At least Sgt. Crowley was there so there was one man present who knows what’s what and how to be real. The other three posers? Well Ol’-Ephus-Pitch-in-Mom-Jeans and Do-You-Know-Who-You’re-Messin’-With have taken Cartesian narcissism to undreamed of levels; and God-Love-Those-Teeth was just happy to be invited. At the last minute. (Or maybe he wasn’t… Maybe that’s the table he sits at and drinks beer all day, reading the paper, SCOURING it to find wasted Stimulus moneys!… and the other three joined HIM for brews…)

  • Xasteius
  • cookcountyconservative

    n/t

  • mobius2702

  • SteveLA
  • mom2oneson

    I was LOL at the pic and then I saw your post !!!!! It does resemble the ladies hospital auxiliary luncheon. Don’t they have like a more casual dining type of room at the WH? Couldn’t they rent out a bar for a few hours?

  • JustLeaveMeAlone

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25627.html

  • AceInTX

    But I still say by agreeing to the first meeting…there is an admission that Gates has a point about being racially profiled when the evidence shows gates to be nothing more than a tenured professor with a specialty in race baiting when he most definitely does not have a point at all!…and agreeing to meet further with Gates only adds to the perception that Gates has a point!

    That said, I especially agree with you in that Officer Crowley handled himself brilliantly and worked the reporters better than most politicians I’ve seen. I think he’d be very impressive as a candidate…I just wonder what his political affiliation is?

  • SoulEspresso

    … a beer summit ought to indicate he isn’t an observant one, at least.

  • Vegas_Rick
  • Swamp_Yankee

    Boston: Irish: Cop: Union

    A conservative Democrat or a RINO. Guys like that are god guys, but the are usually Democrats, not liberals, but Democrats. And yes, there are some good Democrats out there.

  • http://www.skiloveland.com lholsenbeck

    WGN, Obama’s backyard; put a poll up if the beerfest would make people more comfortable discussing race relations.

    it’s currently 65/35 no.

    while its no rasmussen, you would think faithful chicagolanders and chicago’s station would have it native president’s back if the beerfest had any positives, but it doesn’t; it was just a photo-op.

  • djemi

    http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/30/disaster-strikes-beer-summit-biden-decides-to-attend/

    its at the update at the end.

  • smitch61

    And the noise of all the cameras going off. Who paid for the plane fare to get to DC? Just wondering..

  • LISA BULLOCK-HOCK

    hopefully the union. I guess it is a good question to ask.

  • LISA BULLOCK-HOCK

    If he didn’t go, then the loonies would have said that he really is a racist because he doesn’t want to drink beer with the President and Professor
    Gates. I think this was the easiest way for him. I don’t think this guy (Crowley) was intimidated at all and seem quite confident. I don’t agree with your assessment.

  • eliminatedebt

    Have I got together with 3 other men and drank beer in the middle of the garden. That really is awkward. They needed to do that inside, on a couch, with a television on.

  • mom2oneson
  • AceInTX

    He seems to have it together though…and I’d like to know more about Sgt Lashley because he seems like he’s got it going on where it counts in this case!

  • http://www.redstate.com/tnjim TNJim

    Would Obama still be able to say something like what he said after yesterday’s “beer summit”?

    I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart.

    If he really believes that he could also invite Limbaugh and Levin…

  • Scope

    but, after seeing his presser after the beer fest, I like him even more. Had he not gone, he would have been looked at as being stubborn, a racist, and not showing the proper respect for authority (though Obama doesn’t deserve respect). He was very much in command of the presser, answered the press questions with authority and intelligence, and displayed leadership. I loved when he said that he and Gates agreed to disagree. I think that showed that Gates is the racist, and, he is unwilling to change his ways/views on profiling. Crawley didn’t back down and allow himself to be the stooge.

  • Scope

    but, after seeing his presser after the beer fest, I like him even more. Had he not gone, he would have been looked at as being stubborn, a racist, and not showing the proper respect for authority (though Obama doesn’t deserve respect). He was very much in command of the presser, answered the press questions with authority and intelligence, and displayed leadership. I loved when he said that he and Gates agreed to disagree. I think that showed that Gates is the racist, and, he is unwilling to change his ways/views on profiling. Crawley didn’t back down and allow himself to be the stooge.

  • Scope

    Otherwise white Crawley would have looked outgunned. I can’t wait to hear Bidens comments on the beer summit, he never lets down.

  • Scope

    Otherwise white Crawley would have looked outgunned. I can’t wait to hear Bidens comments on the beer summit, he never lets down.

  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx

    The office, and yes, by virtue of this strange conservative doctrine of federal headship, the person holding the office as well, does indeed deserve respect, honor and, subject to the law of God in particulars, the obedience of those under his authority.

  • Rod_Patrick

    Crowley had to leave his firearms in attending this VERY IMPORTANT PHOTO-OP.

    And for what? To Get drunk between two bullies who have subtle (if not obvious) anger/animosity against his kind (read: color)? Crowley’s not a fool.

    Thanks to VP Biden. He’s useful in this case. A very useful tool, in fact.

  • blooch

    Sergeant Crawley should have brought a pack of Marlboros and laid it on the table, just to see Obama sweat bullets.

  • Warrior

    of the POTUS deserves respect, but certaimly not obedience from anyone not under his authority, which is anyone not in the Fed govt or military. For crying out loud, the man works for US. He is OUR employee. WE hired him….

  • Warrior

    Sgt Crowley–if he goes he’s a stooge and if he doesn’t he’s a racist. It’s all a huge waste of time.

    Maybe the up side of NObama’s administration is that after four years of this nonesense no one will believe politically motivated cries of “racism” anymore. Godspeed the day…

  • Rod_Patrick

    I promised myself not to say bad words.

  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx

    of dispersed authority in a constitutional republic, but if as you say the President has authority over the Federal government and the military, then the obedience owed by citizens to those arms of the government is ultimately owed to the President.

    Back to Scope’s use of “the proper respect for authority”, had Crowley refused the invite for any reasons other than conscience in light of a clear law of God, that refusal would have ultimately undercut his own delegated authority.

  • Warrior

    authority over the military and federal employees. The average citizen does not owe obedience to the President or to the military or to officials of the federal govt unless codified by law in direct execution of their official duties, e.g. the FBI, the IRS, etc.. The POTUS owes obedience to us since he is (supposedly) our representative and they are our civil servants (this is a quaint sounding phrase precisely because of the widespread belief that we owe them “obedience”.) A time of war may mitigate that somewhat, but only insofar as we owe our country allegience which is personified in such times by the POTUS and other govt reps like the draft board.

    Sgt. Crowley had every right in the world to refuse to meet with the president, as many others have done before him. I agree it was likely far wiser for him to assent to the invitation, but not required. Whether or not that might have “ultimately undercut” his authority is academic at best. If he meets you on the street while carrying out his duties as a police officer, and he orders you to do something, you are responsible to obey him whether he posed for a photo op or not.

    So far as I know, we still do not live in a police state. I can refuse an invitation from ANY elected official. They work for us. I’m afraid your point of view is the reason or country has reached such a sorry state. Citizen obedience to the military is a feature of Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua and other banana republics, not the United States. We’re not there—–yet.

  • Warrior

    “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
    Abraham Lincoln

  • Warrior

    “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
    Abraham Lincoln

  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx

    I have very little disagreement with your breakdown of the issue of obedience viewed from within the Constitution; I thought I had given enough indicators that I was speaking from a more fundamental set of assumptions.

    Analogously, while our legislation attempts to keep me from doing my neighbor minimal harm, and in certain areas attempts to extra from me provision for my neighbor’s (and my common) good, I am fully aware that it commands neither me nor my neighbor to love each other.

    Yet we are in fact so commanded.

    As an aside, I have never been credited with such influence as you have by saying “(my) point of view is the reason or (sic) country has reached such a sorry state.” Thanks for according that dubious honor to little old me!

    Not sure I readily can see exactly how we have been suffering from a surfeit of godly obedience to authority, though…

  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx

    nt

  • Warrior

    I really didn’t mean to accuse you of running our country into the ground. Sorry, sometimes I get a little worked up over this stuff.

    Now, my original response began with the words, “The office of the POTUS deserves respect…” I am all for a more respectful and civil society. Don’t read me wrong here. But slowly and surely, our civil servants are becoming our uncivil masters in many areas, or at least they think they are. Also, many of our more unsophisticated citizens have come to believe that out government rules us, rather than governs us. I simply don’t wish to throw any fuel on that fire.

    Furthermore, I hold the tteachers unions to account for producing such an unaware and unschooled populace. Many people cannot place WWII in the right century. And US kids are just as smart as other kids in the 3rd or 4th grades. However, by the time they finish high school, they are scoring below students in such countries as Sri Lanka and Mozambique. And we spend as much or more money per student as any school system in the world.

    And if you are or know a public school teacher, don’t take offense. My mother, aunt, cousins and many friends are teachers. There are mant dedicated and skillful public school teachers. For the most part, it’s not the teachers, it’s the system…

  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx

    As for my possibly being a public school teacher, don’t worry–my wife and I are about to begin our 19th year of home-schooling!