Arrest of Harvard Professor and the ‘wimp factor’

Last few days, the main stream media (MSM) in USA had field day with their analysis and fuss about the arrest of Harvard professor Gates, and President Obama’s remark that the Cambridge Police acted ‘stupidly’ in arresting a person for being loud and ‘tumultuous’ at his own home. Everyone had an opinion about this, and things started to get out of hand with accusations like ‘Obama has insulted the police force’, ‘Democrats are weak on defense’, so on. Finally, the President had to make a surprise appearance before the Press, and had to effectively apologize for his ‘stupid’ remark. While I appreciate the necessity of cooling things down, I feel that President Obama went overboard in praising the arresting officer Sgt. Crawley ('an outstanding officer and a good man'), and inviting him for a beer at the White House. In this country, a person is handcuffed and taken to station only in situations where he or she has caused a physical harm, or is a threat of causing one. Certainly Professor Gates, while loud, did not do any of that. Therefore, Sgt. Crawley was wrong, and should have been reprimanded for his action. Instead, he gets to go to White House to have beer with the President. Only in America!
I am getting concerned about President Obama not having the necessary toughness to be the leader of a country. He so far has been acting like a community organizer who has no power, but has to get things accomplished by placating and uniting diverse parties. While reconciliation may work well in some cases, an effective leader should know how to use the power when the need arises. President Obama appears to be reluctant to wield his enormous power as a well liked President of United States. I just cannot understand the trouble he is having in getting a decent health care bill passed, despite his party having the majority in Congress, and a filibuster proof number of votes (60) in the Senate. How difficult it is to keep the Congressmen from his own party (Blue Dog Democrats) in line? A popular leader, like Obama, has the power to prevent the reelection of any politician if he/she chooses to. Maybe he should take some lessons from Sonia Gandhi of India who demands and gets absolute party loyalty. I hate to say this, but the Republicans under George Bush were disciplined, and, as a result, accomplished what they wanted, however wrong they might have been. President Bush never sweated about reconciliation and getting general census. He and Vice President Dick Cheney knew to use the power of their offices. Soon, the world is going to catch on to the ‘wimp factor’ of our President, and exploit it. A surprise attack on Iran by Israel may be the start!