Beer summit short on substance and impact

The highly anticipated “beer summit” took place this evening with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sitting down for a beer with Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. The meeting comes a week after a press conference in which the President said Crowley and other officers “acted stupidly” in arresting Gates, right after admitting he knew nothing about the case. He looked foolish after more details emerged that portrayed Gates as the one to invoke race as he went off the deep end on officers just doing their job.

President Obama tried to portray the beer moment as a great step forward in race relations:

I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode.

Whatever happy spin he tries to put on it, the President is trying to put this behind him as a lot of Americans reacted negatively to his reflexive attack on the police without knowing the facts. Among other things, it diminishes his political capital at a time when he needs it the most to sell his health care plan.

As for the beer session itself, what did it really accomplish? I’ll agree with Obama in noting that it’s nice to see that Crowley and Gates have already talked about the subject and plan to talk again. Officer Crowley called the meeting productive and said all parties are looking forward (a relief to the President, I’m sure), but according to him he and Gates “agree to disagree” about the confrontation. Doesn’t that leave us back at square one? I’m all for people of all colors sitting down together, particularly for a nice cold one, and I’m all in favor of a frank, candid, and civil discussion on race.

But let’s be honest – this moment wasn’t about that. When you have news agencies breathlessly reporting each man’s beer of choice, you know it’s less about substance and more about style. This “beer summit” was only about a photo op and providing damage control for the President. The honest discussion on race will have to wait for another day.

Obama admin denies loan for Ohio uranium plant

A Japanese uranium enrichment plant similar to the one proposed in Ohio.

The Department of Energy on Tuesday rejected the loan request of Maryland-based USEC for the construction of a uranium-enrichment plant in Ohio. USEC CEO John K. Welch said the President reneged on a campaign promise he had made while stumping in Ohio, and Obama actually stated his support on two separate occasions:

While campaigning in southern Ohio last August, Obama praised the USEC project. “Under my administration, energy programs that promote safe and environmentally sound technologies and are domestically produced, such as the enrichment facility in Ohio, will have my full support,” he said later in a letter to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D). “I will work with the Department of Energy to help make loan guarantees available for this and other advanced energy programs that reduce carbon emissions.”

Rep. Jean Schimdt (R) of Piketon, OH and Rep. Zack Space (D) of Dover, OH raised bipartisan complaints about the DOE’s failure to approve the loan. The DOE’s decision is even more curious when you consider the following:

Two other enrichment plants are planned, one in New Mexico and one in Idaho, but the one in New Mexico would be built by a European consortium and the one in Idaho by Areva, a French company.

I don’t know if those companies somehow got DOE loans, but I would hope not.

Ohio needed this uranium enrichment plant, which would have been situated in Piketon and was termed the American Centrifuge Plant. Jobs in general would be fantastic for the state, especially the tech jobs that this plant would have provided. Instead, the DOE pooh-poohs an American company while two other foreign-owned projects go forward, all while undercutting the President’s supposed interest in “green technology.” A smart energy policy would include nuclear energy and its attendant support industries, but environmentalists and not energy folks are setting the direction on energy policy. It’s another missed opportunity, and both Ohio and the nation will be worse off for it.