Saturday, July 25, 2009

Thank Beer for Universal Health Care

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has accepted Barack Obama's offer to meet with him and Police Sgt. James Crowley over a refreshing round of beer at the White House.

"My unfortunate experience will only have a larger meaning if we can all use [the recent controversy] to diminish racial profiling...," Gates said in a statement released on Friday. "And to that end, I look forward to studying the history of racial profiling in a new documentary for PBS.

"I told the President that my principal regret was that all of the attention paid to his deeply supportive remarks during his press conference had distracted attention from his health care initiative. I am pleased that he, too, is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sgt. [James] Crowley for a beer with the President will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige."

I'm sure Sgt. Crowley must be extremely overjoyed with the knowledge that he will soon be a primary focal point of Mr. Gates' upcoming PBS documentary on racial profiling. Most individuals spend a life-time trying to attain that kind of notoriety, but thanks to the president and Mr. Gates, Sergeant Crowley has managed to achieve that goal in just a few short days. [Update - Hotair has apparently arrived at the same conclusion.]

Incidentally, both Mr. Obama and Mr. Gates noted that the recent squabble had diverted attention away from the president's health care proposals. But apparently, the president's "Beer" initiative has managed to quell the controversy a tad bit, enabling the country to refocus its attention once again on Obama's health care plan.

The question now arises: Will the beer manufacturers vie with one another for the right to supply the beer for the upcoming White House meeting, to promote their beer as the beverage that saved Obama's health care initiative?

"Budweiser, the beer that saved Universal Health care", hmmm....

According to a recent Fox News poll, 79 percent of Americans believe that "if health care legislation is passed they personally will pay more in taxes... 45 percent think the quality of their family's health care would be worse. Only 29 percent say they would get better quality health care. [17 percent expect no difference...]"

Hmmm, I suppose Budweiser will probably pass up on that one........

Meanwhile, some questions have arisen about a "charitable foundation" headed by Mr. Gates.

Perhaps Sergeant Crowley might want to look at those questions. If he ever decides to produce his own PBS documentary about charitable foundations, they may come in handy...

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