I had a friend once who forbade her two boys from using the word “stupid.”  I always felt a little sheepish when she admonished the youngters. 

Because "stupid" is one of my favorite words.  I regularly rail against stupid stoplights, stupid taxation, and in particular, stupid politicians.  That's why I found it fascinating when Barack Obama, admired by so many for having such a way with words, got into such deep doo-doo by using my beloved adjective in its adverbial form.

The irony is that Barack Obama was totally right:  Cambridge, MA Police Sergeant James Crowley did “act stupidly” in arresting Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates.   But in reality, all three men handled themselves like dunderheads – and the President came out the worst.

Sergeant Crowley claims that Professor Gates’ rowdiness interfered with his investigation … and that the professor yelled that he would talk to the officer’s “mama.” Crowley’s defenders point out that he was backed up in his rationale for the arrest by a black colleague, that he actually taught classes on sensitivity in racial profiling, and that he had even given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to the fallen black Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis.

So let me get this straight:  Professor Gates had already identified himself to the officer, and officials from Harvard who knew him had arrived on the scene.  What was there to investigate?  The professor yelled at Sergeant Crowley, insulted his mama and pulled rank on him?  Oh, sticks and stones!  He probably will have to go on disability pay after that one.  And frankly, I don’t care if Sergeant Crowley gave mouth-to-mouth to Mother Teresa with Dr. Albert Schweitzer attending and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir witnessing.

The truth is that from a PR perspective in the very least, Sergeant Crowley was in pure and simple brain-lock. The officer didn’t think he was going to raise some serious hackles for hauling off in handcuffs, from his own front porch, a black Harvard professor who had already accused him of racial profiling?  Give me a break. 

Police officers are trained to walk away from situations much more volatile than that presented by an angry but harmless late-middle-aged Ivy League academic who walks with a limp and whom Crowley could have probably whipped with a wet noodle.  And by the way, if Sergeant Crowley was so clearly in the right, why were the charges dropped so quickly?  I think we all know the answer to that.

Of course, Professor Gates didn’t exactly demonstrate that he playing with the fullest of decks either when he went all Raging Bull on a police officer whose job is to look after his safety.  Now, I’m not suggesting that the eminent professor had to suck up to The Man.  But consider how much more powerfully Dr. Gates would have made his point if he had simply stated, “Of course, Officer, I’m happy to assist the police in any way I can.  And naturally, you ask for the same identification for all of the white Harvard professors whom you come to investigate in their own homes.”  The good doctor might have drawn out a twinge of guilt … and maybe even given Officer Crowley some new material for his racial profiling courses.

Fortunately for both men, they were eclipsed in the Department of Dense by none other than the President of the United States.  Certainly, presidents can be of the opinion that someone has acted in a way suggesting a deficit in perspicacity and express that sentiment … in private.  (See Johnson, Lyndon B. and Ford, Gerald R., “chewing gum and breaking wind.”)  But for the first “post-racial” chief executive to appear not only to call a white cop “stupid” on national television but to accuse him of being racist … well, that puts him roughly in the same category as the lawmaker who called a press conference to deny that he was the dumbest senator.

Once again, there is a right way to make the points the President wanted to without going over the line:  “Clearly, I don’t have all the facts.  But based on my experience with racial profiling, I can understand how Professor Gates might have felt he was being singled out by being asked for identification in his own home, and then being arrested on his own front porch.  At the same time, citizens need to cooperate with the law enforcement personnel who lay their lives on the line to preserve their safety.”  Everyone hears what he or she wants to hear, and goes home happy.

Crowley provided the Prez a slick save when he jokingly suggested that he, Gates and Obama straighten things out, man-to-man-to-man, over some brewskies … an offer on which the Most Powerful Man in the World quickly and adeptly took him up. 

But all the beer summit photo ops in the world aren't seeming to undo the damage done The One by a single stray word, as his popularity continues to flag and his programs plummet.   

Maybe my friend was right after all.