Ale to the Chief: "The money shot was about 40 seconds of shaky pool video—captured from a sterile distance of 50 feet away—first of a butler carrying a silver tray of steins across a manicured lawn, then of the president and the vice president in breezy shirtsleeves, and the professor and the cop in formal dark suits, seated at a round white patio table, with the steins placed in front of them."--LG
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After all the hype for Thursdays White House Beer Summit—the cheesy countdown clocks, the silly panel discussions, CNNs arguably insane segment featuring a crazed schematic of the Rose Garden get-together—the actual event was letdown.
Chris Matthews found it impossible not to compare the meeting to Bill Clintons historic White House ceremony between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin. Even through beer goggles, the reality could never have matched the buildup—which was stoked earlier in the day by a presidential photo-op during which Barack Obama affected to be fascinated with the fascination about this evening.
The president added: Its a clever term, but this is not a summit, guys, just three folks having a drink at the end of the day. Obama and Joe Biden grinned genially, leaned back, and popped nuts into their mouths. Harvard academic Henry Louis Skip Gates Jr. and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley, on the far side of the table and a safe distance from each other, sat ramrod-straight and unsmiling. All that could be heard was the whirring of cameras and some muffled muttering, as the president sipped his beer, then downed a mouthful of nuts, then laughed at something, then wiped his hand on his trousers. At one point he and Gates clinked steins. Biden didnt seem interested in his nonalcoholic suds. Sgt. Crowley raised his beer to his lips and gulped, as Professor Gates lectured and gestured.
Thank you! barked a White House aide, and then the pool was briskly ushered out of range. Im pretty unimpressed, Wendell, Fox complained to White House correspondent. Im pretty unimpressed, too, Goler said.
Compared to its two rivals, Foxs coverage was succinct and predictably sour. Patronizing, condescending, insufferable, Fox said of Obama. Otherwise, Im sure hes a nice guy. I give President Obama a huge amount of credit for caring about Vice President Biden.
And so the Teachable Moment ended—not with a bang but with a whimper of post-game analysis, on and on, into the night. A watchable moment that inevitably morphed into an unwatchable eternity. CNN owned this story—but not always in a good way. In its pre-game coverage presided earnestly in front of a multi-screen display showing live shots of various locations on the White House grounds—including a bunch of photographers doing nothing in the Briefing Room, an inert structure labeled Fence, and an otherwise unidentifiable wall labeled West Wing , complete with high-tech video pullouts, of how White House officials changed the venue of the Oktoberfest from the picnic table by the playground equipment on the South Lawn to the smaller table in the Rose Garden. FOX encouraged domestic Beerbohm to complain that the president, in choosing Bud Light as his brew, was actually celebrating a Belgian-owned company. NBC speculated that Biden would be praising Gates as clean and articulate. Matthews did a live opening segment replete with assessments of body language and facial expressions, and found it impossible not to compare the meeting to Bill Clintons historic White House ceremony between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin.
Sgt. Crowleys televised news conference at AFL-CIO headquarters: This supposedly media-innocent cop was thoughtful, relaxed, and even humorous before the cameras as he announced that he and the professor were planning to meet again. Do you know where youre meeting? a reporter asked.
I do, Crowley answered with a tiny grin.
Can you tell us? the reporter pressed.
No! Crowley shot back—getting rewarded with a roar of laughter.
Afterward CNN marveled: He sounded at points like a politician.
Politicos agreed: NBC bureau chief chimed in: A star is born.
But Matthews came up with a metaphor befitting the strange excess of the night: Weve got another Susan Boyle here.