In for an inch, in for a mile, the old saw goes. Politicians with no business experience deciding to run 15 percent of the economy is the mile. The inch, in this case, is Pres. Obama’s jump to conclusions about the temporary arrest of Harvard black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., which he is hastily having to qualify.

Why the scramble to save face? Because the facts are coming in. And it’s not just the police report, in which the renowned scholar tells the officer, that he, um, will [respecfully request an audience] with your Mama outside [Officer]. Facts about the officer himself are coming to light:1, 2

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home is a police academy expert on understanding racial profiling.

Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class about racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming.

There are sensible approaches to this controversy. No matter one’s opinion on whether or not Gates deserved arrest, not immediately assuming racism seems a rational starting point. (It’s probably asking too much for a highly decorated black scholar not to see blatant racism.) Bill Cosby put it this way:

“I’ve heard about five different reports [on the details of the arrest],” Cosby said on Boston’s WZLX. “If I’m the president of the United States, I don’t care how much pressure people want to put on it about race, I’m keeping my mouth shut.”

“I was shocked to hear the president making this kind of statement,” Cosby said

Crowley, who isn’t apologizing, had this to say:

“I support the president of the United States 110 percent. I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts as he himself stated before he made that comment,” Crowley told WBZ-AM. “I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too.”

And there’s the connection. Obama was way off base wading into that local issue, and look where it got him. At least there he’s the one bearing all the costs of an embarrassing screwup. That’s the inch. The mile is Obama being infinitely more off base in wading into (diving into, more like) the very localized relationships between patients, doctors and insurance providers. If he succeeds there, we will bear all the costs, which by all accounts would be staggering to the economy and potentially lethal to individuals.

So if I’m the president, I don’t care how much pressure the statists want to put on me to take over healthcare, I would keep my hands way the heck off.

Notes
1. I find it interesting that this news article has a new lede since I first composed this post.

2. Now an hour after composing the post, the AP has another very supportive article about the arresting officer. I would be remiss not to mention it after the first footnote:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The white police sergeant accused of racial profiling after he arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home was hand-picked by a black police commissioner to teach recruits about avoiding racial profiling.

Friends and fellow officers — black and white — say Sgt. James Crowley is a principled cop and family man who is being unfairly described as racist.

“If people are looking for a guy who’s abusive or arrogant, they got the wrong guy,” said Andy Meyer, of Natick, who has vacationed with Crowley, coached youth sports with him and is his teammate on a men’s softball team. “This is not a racist, rogue cop. This is a fine, upstanding man. And if every cop in the world were like him, it would be a better place.” …