The Beer Summit: Five Center-Right Perspectives

Ron Miller: "Bitter Suds Can't Wash Away Racial Pain In America"

The conservative Republican in Maryland opines: "Yesterday evening, the President and Vice President of the United States sat at a round patio table with a black Harvard University professor and the white police officer from Cambridge, Massachusetts who arrested him two weeks ago for disorderly conduct in his own home. Large mugs of beer, the beverage of choice, sat on the table or were being lifted to moisten dry throats, the kind that come from nervousness. My guess is this was the most uncomfortable any of these men have ever felt while drinking a beer. In the end, very little was accomplished except for the two antagonists agreeing to continue the dialogue. No apologies were issued, nor were they expected. If this sounds like an improbable Hollywood drama sketch, it isn't nearly as far-fetched as the notion that this "beer summit" as it's been called will be a 'teachable moment,' as President Obama has opined, in the nation's long struggle with race. It may smooth over the problems these two men have with each other, but it will do nothing to change the different vantage points from which they and others of their respective races view the world. It is these differing worldviews that have created the gulf between blacks and whites in America, a gulf unique to the dynamic between these two races."

After discussing black history in America which has led to most black Americans' worldview and responding to black cop Sgt. Leon Lashley being tagged an "Uncle Tom" for backing his colleage Sgt. James Crowley, Mr. Miller writes: "Neither side is willing to concede they can learn from the other. Whites believe that race should be irrelevant and the character and behavior of the individual is what should matter. Blacks consider themselves a collective whole and judge whites collectively as well. Individualism is an approach without power to coerce social change and which absolves whites of the collective sin of racism. Therefore, it is rejected. Blacks like me who endorse the individualist worldview are denigrated and shamed to get back in line. It is our departure from orthodoxy, however, that allows us to break the shackles of racial tension and see it for what it is - a clash of worldviews. Understanding collectivism versus individualism is the first step toward a more constructive dialogue on race and, while I don't drink beer myself, I think we can all raise our glasses to that."

Cobb: "Let Me Break Down Their Beer Choices"

The moderate-conservative Republican blogger writes: "Anyway I'm much more inclined to consider the comic ramifications of the beers deployed at the summit. According to my sources, the menu had:

Biden: non-alcoholic Buckler[s] beer
Crowley: Blue Moon
Gates: Sam Adams Light
Obama: Bud Light

Not surprisingly, the only man there with a nickel's worth of taste was Gates himself. But that Gates has some taste in beer at all is a bit surprising. I'm going to have to ask my man if this is Gates' regular brew or if he did a little research before ordering. Quite frankly, it's probably the ideal beer to order at the White House, if you must have a light beer. I am a personal fan of Sam Adams Light and I say that without question it is the best America light beer, period. Big thumbs up for Skip. Blue Moon? What the heck is that? A new beer out of the Coors factory that I've never heard of. Their marketing makes it sound, well, way more sophisticated than Coors. But since I haven't tasted it, I really can't say. I give Crowley a 'meh'. I should have expected a Rolling Rock, a righteous East Coast blue collar cop beer."

He continues: "Biden does more to poison whatever scrap of dignity he has at every opportunity. I find it difficult to subvert the impression that he's a recovering alcoholic and has made this point to drink the near beer to squelch any idea that he's backsliding. But my information tells me that he's a somewhat moralistic teetotaller. He had drunks in the family and swore off the stuff completely. Either way, when invited to a beer summit you drink beer, you ballless wonder. Obama is doing what Obama does. Meticulously crafting his image. I'm sure that he polled his staff to figure out what beer to drink, and they told him it should be Bud Light. When he went on the trail last year he drank Pabst Blue Ribbon. Pure political craft. Wait. This just in. As I look around there is conflicting reports about Skip's regular beer. I'm hearing Red Stripe and I'm thinking yep, that sounds more like the Skip Gates I think I know."

Clifton B.: "A Bore Snore Designed To Cover Self-Inflicted Wounds"

The conservative blogger opines about yesterday evening's event at the White House: "Given all the hype of the Beer Summit, you would have thought we were about to enter a new age of Post-Post Racial America. Instead all we got was a bunch of crappy photos. The reason why the Beer Summit turned out to be a Beer Bust, was because it was never really designed to be a meeting of the minds, instead it was design to cover self inflicted wounds. Let['s] start the most wounded, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The brother got all bent out of shape because in walked the cops and they did not respect his authoritah as a Harvard celebrity. Gates knew damn well he broke into his own house, so why did he trip out when the police showed up saying they received a report about a break in? He tripped out because, at that moment in time the Great Henry Louis Gates, darling of Harvard, was just a regular guy who needed to show some ID. For that bit of indignation, Gates played the race card. However, in this case the race card became the race boomerang and hit Gates square in the ass. Next we have Obama, who in a moment of candor, allowed his carefully crafted mask of Post Racial professionalism to slip and all of America was allowed to see the type of reverse racial prejudice that only comes from sitting in Reverend Wright's church for 20 years. Obama clearly did not know jack s__t about what happened to his friend Gates. Yet Obama easily assumed that since a white cop hauled off his well heeled black friend, then the stupid cops must have had a racial motive. Again, the facts come out and the boomerang struck Obama. It was Gate[s'] big mouth set the whole dust up in motion and the police were just doing their job. Finally we get to Sgt. Crowley, his only wound was letting Gates' big mouth get to him. Had he had just left the scene after getting the [ID] he needed, he could have hopped into his patrol car and curse Gates mother, father and whole generation without anyone being the wiser. Sgt. Crowley's life would have forever remained the same. Instead from this point forward, Sgt. Crowley's life will forever be on the media's radar. God forbid Sgt. Crowley should have another questionable run in with a black man it will be circus city all over again."

Kevin Jackson: "Obama's Teachable Moment: Exactly What Was America Taught?"

Asks the conservative Republican in St. Louis: "In what was sold as the most transparent administration in the modern era, Obama’s teachable moment had a 'gag order.' The conversation sealed until the next millennia, or some unspecified time when Amerika can be graced with Obama’s 'words.' Perhaps the people of the year 3000 will get to hear this profound audio, and know how to deal with race issues, issues created when a puppet dictator decides to weigh in on issues 'above his pay grade.' Until then, the rest of us will have to just rely on common sense and know that smart presidents simply ignore the non-event of cops doing their jobs."

He continues his commentary: "Because of Obama’s meddling, BeerFest was held on the White House lawn, where America was treated — in video, sans audio — to Obama attempting to look like the Average Joe. In fact, in an effort to achieve 'balance,' 'Below Average' Joe Biden was present. Three elitist versus one cop…the elitists were grossly understaffed! As for Biden’s presence, well it certainly explains the gag order. Joe says the darndest things sober! So imagine what the first black Vice President would have said in an alcohol induced stupor?"

Tyrone: "Does The Nation Still Have A Hangover Yet From This Staged Event?"

The conservative Republican in Baltimore, Maryland, writes: "The mass marketed and much hyped "beer summit" has thankfully come and gone. The whole Crowley, Gates, and Obama soap opera was like a huge toothache. You wanted relief right now, but the dentist couldn't see you until next week. If anyone thinks that this 'racial beer summit' was legit in any way, I have a ten dollar Rolex they might be interested in buying. What happened yesterday on the lawn of the White House was nothing more then a staged photo op for Barack Obama. The whole event took place outside on the White House grounds with dozens of cameras taking pictures and filming them....If I was Obama, I would have held the 'summit' inside White House behind 'closed doors'. If I was truly serious about the event from a racial perspective, I wouldn't have wanted the meeting between myself, Gates and Crowley to have been tainted by making it a media spectacle."