Surely as soon as the words came out of his mouth, the West Wing must have smacked his foreheads.  Commenting on the controversial arrest of an African-American scholar with a literal Ph.D. in being black in America, Barack Obama committed a rare indulgence of language.  The usually careful professor-in-chief reacted to the police incident involving Henry Louis Gates Jr. with an appropriate amount of candor – the kind unfit for the highest office in the land.  “Stupidly,” this young administration would discover this week, may be the kind of truth unwelcome in politics.

Police unions immediately jumped to defend their man.  Right-wing media, starving for a controversy other than the president’s birth certificate, went aggro with practiced ease.  The president was calling a cop stupid – the lead effortlessly jumped in front of the grinding, slow health care negotiations.

Almost casually, a press conference intended to get Obama’s health care reform back on track further derailed their cause in the press for a week.

But this young administration proved over the weekend that its damage control may be unconventional, but can also be perfectly effective.  As another Friday came to a close with the Obama agenda suffering summer doldrums, a quick release was drafted presenting a novel solution to the police incident problem steeped in the Chicago old school.

Barack Obama just invited the guys over for a beer.

Obviously, a beer with the President of the United States is more politics than personal conflict resolution, but the move – however inauthentic – is shrewd PR.  Less compromising than an apology and more powerful than digging in, a beer is a solution is suited uniquely to take the steam out of the problem.  The invitation is guaranteed to be accepted – what man is going to say no to a beer with anyone, let alone the president? – and the timbre of the occasion lets everyone walk away proud.  The perfect way to defuse a troublesome distraction and gain some yardage in the process.

As much of a spectacle as it is, the example it sets is just as strong. Through this move, Obama takes us back to a day before post-modernity robbed us of our ability to disagree.  Such a romantic nostalgia is a day when men could be men, get in each other’s faces in red-faced, livid intemperance, and after an appropriate cooldown, resolve to be better to one another over a cold one.

That day has long gone is unlikely to return, but in the imaginary arena of media management that is sadly necessary for deeds of consequence in this 21st century.  But, if that is the only way we can taste it, I’m appreciative that this is the president to bring back the old school of settling disputes.

Even if it’s only a photo opp.

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