Since Obama’s comments on the Gates debacle, whites approval ratings of his performance have gone down, while non-whites approval ratings of him have gone up.
[snip
President Barack Obama’s get-together with black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and white police Sgt. James Crowley was less about reaching for racial enlightenment than about helping Obama change the topic and get Americans to focus on what he wants to do in office.
His approval ratings are sagging and his proposed health care overhaul is a momentous struggle.
His snap judgment that Cambridge, Mass., police "acted stupidly" in the Gates-Crowley confrontation proved a distraction that, if anything, may have sharpened a racial divide. It certainly got people talking.
Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and the two guests were seen hoisting mugs of beer on a Rose Garden patio, the press given a few minutes to film the meeting but kept far enough away that no chatter could be heard.
http://www.macombdaily.com/articles/2009/07/31/news/srv0000005991891.txt